Luca Rossetti made the
best possible start to his FIA European Rally
Championship defence on the Rally 1000 Miglia which
finished yesterday, the Scorpion factory star taking
home a maximum points score to open up an 11 point gap
to his closest rival, Renato Travaglia (Skoda Fabia
S2000), with one round completed.
However, the Rally 1000
Miglia also counted as the second round of the 2011
Italian Rally Championship (CIR) and it was less
auspicious here for Rossetti who is chasing title
honours in a factory-supported Abarth Grande Punto S2000
as he finished the event somewhat adrift in second place
overall with victory going to reigning CIR champion and
former Abarth driver Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot 207
S2000). That made it two wins out of two for Andreucci
who won the opening round, the 34th Rally il Ciocco,
less than a month ago and now leads the Abarth pilot by
14 points already.
The rally got underway
on Thursday evening and finished yesterday at 6:35 pm
after 14 special stages all located around Brescia.
Rossetti won the opening stage on Thursday to lead the
pack into Friday's six tests. However the Abarth driver
wasn't able to maintain that initial form and Andreucci
quickly swept into the lead. With the conditions turning
damp and cooler Andreucci was right in his element, the
undisputed Italian master in these conditions, while
Rossetti's Michelins were also no match for the Peugeot
driver's Pirellis which are traditionally superior in
the wet. The highly experienced Andreucci kept his calm
during the day's big attack, which came from Elwis
Chentre from Aosta also driving a Peugeot 207 Super 2000
run by the local team Vieffecorse, and the reigning CIR
champion eventually posted four fastest stage times out
of the six contested through the day, while Chentre, who
dropped back with a broken driveshaft, took the other
two.
Rossetti, who lost a
few seconds with a spin on SS3, had a relatively quiet
day - he posted two second fastest times, one third, two
fourth and one seventh - as he trailed into overnight
pace ferme at the half way point of the rally almost a
minute adrift of Andreucci (-58.3 seconds). That however
gave "Rox" the first ERC points haul of the event, 7
points for winning day one, and he was also more than
half a minute clear of his closest rival in the European
race, Travaglia, who occupied the final podium slot.
Yesterday during the final seven
special stages Andreucci was able to control the race,
comfortably maintaining the gap to Rossetti, while
easing off to manage a minor braking issue. Rossetti did
his best to take the battle to "Ucci" though. On the
opening stage yesterday he was second fastest to Chentre,
then posted two fastest times (SS9 and SS10) and two
third quickest times before setting the best time on the
closing two stages of the rally (SS13 and SS14), thus
taking four fastest times out of the seven tests (the
other stage winners on the final day were Andreucci and
Alessandro Perico). With Andreucci not registered for
the ERC, Rossetti thus took maximum European points,
however after two rounds of the CIR the Abarth factory
challenge on the CIR looks increasingly outclassed as
the Peugeot driver continues his winning ways.
Travaglia and Lorenzo Granai took the
last podium position, on their return (after their
experience on the 2009 Targa Florio Rally) to the
cockpit of the Skoda Fabia Super 2000, this time a
privately-run entry from DP Autosport. The experienced
crew, from Trentino and Tuscany, tried to ffind the
right set
‐up
with the car and improved their performance stage by
stage improved, making a solid start to their European
campaign.
Perico
and
Carrara ended the rally in fourth place overall, after a
terrible start during which they couldn't find the right
set up and
also had several problems with the transmission. They
bounced back to post good times during the last leg of
the rally, including one fastest overall time. Veteran
Franco Cunico took fifth place after also suffering
setup issues ahead of Luca Betti (Peugeot 207 S2000) who
will be another driver challenging Rossetti for ERC
honours. Chentre ended the rally in seventh overall
position, after another difficult day caused by a
puncture, ahead of Alessio Pisi before the first foreign
driver, Dimitar Iliev
(Skoda Fabia S2000), in ninth position confirmed once
again that Rally 1000 Miglia poses a very difficult
challenge for foreign visitors (the only ever
non-Italian winner of 1000 Miglia Rally was Campos in
2003).
In the Trofeo Abarth 500 Selenia Rally category
victory went to Michele Tassone, on his debut in the
grassroots series, with Fabio Grimaldi in the
co-driver's seat alongside. The pair, who fought off the
attentions of Manual Villa and Damiano Delfillipo to
take the win, also finished in 36th place overall.
Second position amongst the Abarth 500 R3T runners
eventuallu went to Swiss driver David Finger, who was
39.9 seconds off Tassone at the chequered flag, while
the podium was completed by the Italian Pierluigi
Maurino.
35th
Rally 1000 Miglia (FIA European Rally Championship, Rd
1/Italian Rally Championship, Rd 2) - Final
Classification:
1. Paolo Andreucci/Anna Andreussi (ITA) Peugeot 207
S2000 2:56:43.9
2. Luca Rossetti/Matteo Chiarcossi (ITA) Abarth Grande
Punto S2000 +33.4
3. Renato Travaglia/Lorenzo Granai (ITA) Škoda Fabia
S2000 +1:50.7
4. Alessandro Perico/Walter Carrara (ITA) Peugeot 207
S2000 +2:13.2
5. Gianfranco Cunico/Rudy Pollet (ITA) Peugeot 207 S2000
+3:06.5
6. Luca Betti/Maurizio Barone (ITA) Peugeot 207 S2000
+4:01.5
7. Elwis Chentre/Angelo Canova (ITA) Peugeot 207 S2000
+4:38.9
8. Alessio Pisi/Fabio Cadore (ITA) Peugeot 207 S2000
+6:55.7
9. Dimitar Iliev/Yanaki Yanakiev (BG) Škoda Fabia S2000
+7:51.4
10. Simone Campedelli/Danilo Fappani (ITA) Citroën DS3
R3T +7:52.6
FIA European Rally Championship
Classification (after 1 round)
1. Rossetti (Abarth) 39 points; 2. Travaglia (Skoda) 28;
3. Perico (Peugeot) 21.
Italian
Rally Championship
Classification (after 2 rounds): 1. Andreucci
(Peugeot) 50; 2. Rossetti (Abarth) 36; 3. Chentre e
Perico (Peugeot) 25.
Trofeo Abarth 500
Selenia Rally: 1. Tassone punti 25; 2. Finger 18; 3.
Maurino 15.
