25.01.2004 ALESSANDRO BROCCOLI SURVIVES A LATE SCARE TO BRING HIS FIAT PUNTO HOME FOURTH IN MONTE CARLO

Fourth position in the Junior World Rally Championship was the end result for Fiat Punto Abarth Rally driver Alessandro Broccoli, co-driven by Giovanni Agnese, on the opening round of the world series, the Monte Carlo Rally.

Starting this morning, the rally's third and final day, in third place, Broccoli lost the position to British youngster Kris Meeke in his Opel Corsa Super1600 by just 7 seconds, after the San Marinese driver suffered a freak spin.

The Junior winner overall at the finish today was the French specialist Nicolas Bernardi in the factory Renault Clio. However Broccoli, who run with the Italian Hi-Tec outfit, considered the rally result a positive one, and was immediately looking to the next event of the championship which is the preserve of drivers under 28 years old and driving Super1600 class cars.

Entered by the Grifone Avvenire team, a second Fiat Punto Rally made it to the finish line to end the event in ninth position. Frenchman Mathieu Biasion, a distant relation of former double World Rally Champion Miki Biasion, emerged on the Italian rally scene during last year's  Stilo Trophy 2003, where the youngster impressed onlookers with his pace and a put in a string of good results.

There is a long break now, the Junior Championship returns at the end of May, with the hardest gravel event in the rally world, the legendary car breaking Acropolis Rally in Greece, which is quickly followed by a second tough challenge, the Rally of Turkey. The Junior World Championship, which runs to seven events, then moves on to Finland, Great Britain, Italy before concluding in Spain with the Catalunya Rally.

by Marco Tenuti ( www.puntopower.com )