"I am very happy, it's amazing the joy I feel," said Menzi at the finish line in Córdoba," winning the second race for the car is very important and I'm proud to be one of the pilots chosen by Fiat. I am very grateful the team worked a lot and I cannot ask for more. To be the first to win with this car is very satisfying."

Menzi's Scuderia Fiat team mate Christian Confetti had a less promising weekend however: he retired on day one but came back into the action on the second day to post a string of highly competitive times. "The weekend left me with mixed feelings," said the Italian, "because on Saturday it was very difficult but on Sunday we recovered to show the car is very competitive and that gives me peace of mind for what comes next."

That result bounces Menzi into the Campeonato Argentino de Rally points lead after two rounds. The first event was held three weeks ago and resulted in a slew of stages being cancelled due to torrential rain before the rally was abandoned and half points were awarded. Menzi collected just 0.5 points on the opening round after coming home eighth overall but earned a bumper 49 points last weekend to move straight to the top of the standings. He is now trailed by three Mitsubishi Evo pilots Juan Marchetto (43 points), José Cantón (36 points) and Juan Gil De Marchi (30.5 points) before the next of the Maxi Rally pilots, the VW star Gabriel Pozzo (25.5 points) takes up fifth place on the leaderboard, 8.5 points ahead of his team mate Miguel Baldoni. Menzi's Scuderia Fiat team mate Confetti is yet to get off the points mark.

The sensational win on the Rally de Villa Dolores at the weekend also marked the first victory for the new breed of "Maxi Rally" cars in the Campeonato Argentino de Rally, a category which has been introduced to try to lower costs and increase car diversity. Argentinean rallying has been utterly dominated in recent years by the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru Impreza and with neither of the Japanese brands having much of a sales impact in the country it has diverted attention away from rallying. To dramatically cut escalating costs the ambitious new "Maxi Rally" category was devised, an aspiration very similar to the "Super 2000" category in Europe, but with a much greater use of stock components. In effect a "kit" it uses a stock four-wheel-drive system (with Subaru diffs), a 4-cyl 2.4-litre normally aspirated Honda engine that has 280 HP at 7,600 rpm on tap, and a 6-speed sequential gearbox. The Punto shell used for the "Maxi Rally" contender is the Brazilian built 5-door model and features a Super 2000 inspired aero package.

The "Maxi Rally" concept has reaped immediate dividends with a string of manufacturers committing to the Campeonato Argentino de Rally for the 2011 season meaning Fiat will face very stiff competition in the chase fore honours this year. Last year the top-notch Baretec team was the first to introduce a Maxi Rally car in Argentina, a VW Gol Trend driven by the now-Scuderia Fiat pilot, Menzi. For this season the Barattero brothers have lined up no less than four cars for last year's championship runner-up Pozzo, two-time South American Champion Raúl Martínez, the young and promising Baldoni and Sebastián Abramian. Meanwhile, Chevrolet and Ford are having their own cars run by the Tango and VRS teams respectively on the eleven round 2011 series. The former is entering one of the Agile models for Marcos Ligato while for the latter, the VRS team headed by the Villagra brothers, is entering a Fiesta driven by the reigning champion Federico Villagra. Finally Alejandro Cancio is running a private Peugeot 207 while Paraguayan Diego Domínguez is at the wheel of a Kia Rio. It's expected that more drivers will make their appearance at the wheel of a 'Maxi Rally' class car before the mid season.

While Menzi was romping to a two and a half minute victory at the weekend to move to the top of the points classification, Ligato inherited the second position on the leaderboard after Pozzi's woes, however, he suffered of engine troubles as well, as did Baldoni who also couldn't made his way through the final day thus giving up his chances of finishing behind Menzi with just one stage remaining. Finally Cantón (Mitsubishi) came home in second place after a faultless run while De Marchi (Mitsubishi) completed the podium.

The highly demanded roads of the Traslasierra Valley meant a difficult task for both drivers and machines and many candidates dropped out the race with mechanical issues. The highest-profile casualty was, once again, the eight-times Argentinean champion Federico Villagra (Ford) was forced to abandon the proceedings early in the competition with an engine failure.

The next round of the Campeonato Argentino de Rally will be the Rally Cutral Có - Plaza Huincul, Neuquén, which takes place from 13-15 May.

2011 Campeonato Argentino de Rally, Rd 2: Rally de Villa Dolores - Final Classification

1 MENZI, Claudio FIAT 1.37.29.1 
2 CANTON, Jose MITSUBISHI 1.39.54,8 2.25.7
3 GIL DE MARCHI, Juan MITSUBISHI 1.40.01,1 2.32.0
4 MARCHETTO, Juan M. MITSUBISHI 1.40.46,4 3.17.3
5 MARTIN, Ivo SUBARU 1.41.42,7 4.13.6
6 ALONSO, Juan SUBARU 1.44.05,1 6.36.0
7 DIAZ, Nicolas MITSUBISHI 1.45.40,3 8.11.2
8 ROSSI, Agustin MITSUBISHI 1.46.22,3 8.53.2
9 MONARCA, Gonzalo MITSUBISHI 1.46.26,9 8.57.8
10 BENETTI, Sergio MITSUBISHI 1.49.45,8 12.16.7

ItaliaspeedTV: Campeonato Argentino de Rally, Rd 2: Rally de Villa Dolores - Fiat Punto Maxi Rally (I)