The Catalunya Rally finished today, and for the N-Technology test team, this time with Giandomenico Basso driving, it was another highly successful outing, as the Italian hot shot stormed to a second place finish in Super 1600, in the face of experience factory backed opposition.

The rally, which started from Lloret de Mar, in Spain, was also the seventh and last event of the Junior World Rally Championship.

Four regular JWRC Punto-driving participants lined-up: Alessandro Broccoli from San Marino (Team Trico), easily most experienced of the quartet, was joined on th start ramp by Luca Betti from Cuneo (Team Hi-Tec), Alan Scorcioni from Emilia (Scuderia Grifone), and the Luca Tabaton from Liguria (Scuderia Grifone).

However, all eyes would be on a fifth Punto Abarth, driven by Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta. Their participation, under the watchful eyes of the N. Technology test team, followed that of Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi in the Rally Italia Sardinia, in which the car confirmed its competitiveness on the events gravel roads.

Finishing second among the Super 1600’s, the Fiat Punto Abarth had thus made it possible to experiment in a race situation technical solutions that would later be made available to the numerous sporting customers who race with this model.

The same task awaited Basso, who would be racing on the Catalan asphalt with Michelin tyres instead of the Pirelli control tyre that drivers in the Junior World are obliged to fit by the regulations.

The event would run to the usual FIA WRC format of three legs. Twenty special stages, all taking place on asphalt, would make up a total of almost 400km of timed trials.  Day one on Friday saw the fifty two crews leave Lloret de Mar to head for the opening La Trona stage. Quick immediately, a smooth run from Basso saw him pos the fourth fastest Super 1600 time.

He was just behind the stage winner Xavier Pons, now at the wheel of a JWRC Renault Clio, Mirco Baldacci, in the first of the factory Suzuki Ignis cars, and, eventual Super 1600 and JWRC winner, Nicolas Bernardi in another Clio.

A steady run on stage two was a prelude to a decisive fastest Super 1600 time on stage three, Gombren 1, a result that pitched Basso in into an early class lead, just 3.7 seconds ahead of Per-Gunnar Andersson, the Swedish Suzuki driver bidding to snatch the JWC crown.

Two second and one third fastest time on this open day's final three stages, allowed Basso to return to overnight parc ferme with the Super 1600 lead firmly in his grip.

Basso headed back into Lloret de Mar with an 11.3 second lead over the first of the JWRC runners, Mirco Baldacci, while Andersson, in his similar Suzuki Ignis, was a further 6.3 seconds adrift.

Day two, yesterday, was split into seven stages, although with the cancellation of the first running of Sant Julia, it was then whittled down to just six. Overnight Super 1600 leader Basso was looking to cement his grip on the class, and fend off the chasing pack of JWRC runners, who were also locked into their own title fight.

The crew from Veneto started off Saturday with a pair of third fastest times on the opening two stages, then were fifth fastest on third before going second fastest on the next, closely retaining their lead as the Super 1600-driving  JWRC pack swapped times as the jostled amongst themselves.

 Fastest on SS12, the second running of Sta Eulalia, boosted Basso's advantage to a whopping 29.5 seconds, and with just one stage of the day remaining, a second night on top of the leaderboard was looking on the cards for the N-Technology team.

However the final timed test of day two was to have a sting in the tail. A wrong choice of tyres saw Basso loose 34 seconds to stage winner Bernardi, which gave the French Renault driver a very slender 4.3 second advantage over the N-Technology pilot as the cars rolled into parc ferme.

Andersson, absorbed by his JWRC title tilt, was a comfortable 38 seconds back from the Punto driver.

The third day would see three stages, each run twice, before the survivors headed back to the rally finish at Lloret de Mar.

From the quick La Roca stage at just 5.05km in length, to the mammoth 35.18km Viladreu, these twisty tarmac tests would present Basso with his last chance to wrest back the Super 1600 lead.

Added to the obvious pace of the Fiat Punto would be the fact that the 31-year-old Italian is an experienced rally driver, always blisteringly quick, and with previous Spanish rally experience to draw on.

However it all went wrong on the first timed test of the day, the 12.85km Sant Boi de Llucanes stage, where Basso dropped almost 20 seconds to Bernardi, leaving him 24 sconds adrift of the Clio pilot overall, and barring an incident or mechanical intervention, no hope of making up such a time deficit.

A steady run over the rest of the morning, saw Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta cruise to the finish second in Super 1600, with a comfortable forty second margin over Per-Gunnar Andersson's factory-backed Suzkui Ignis, the Swede clinching the JWRC title after his closest rival Guy Wilks dropped out early on.

It all combined to give the Fiat Punto its second excellent result over two consecutive WRC outings.

On the Sardinia Rally in Italy earlier this month, in the hands of Paolo Andreucci, and now in Spain, with Basso at the wheel, the Punto Abarth has confounded the critics who said it was not a match for the Suzuki or Renault, by showing its blistering pace on two completely differing surface events.

N-Technology were delighted with the Punto's performance, commenting that, "Fatigue tests of the engineering during the race gave very encouraging results, with no important mechanical component breaking."

Meanwhile, in the Junior World Rally Championship encounter, Alessandro Broccoli and Giovanni Agnese were the best of the Fiat Punto crews, finishing in sixth place in their Trico-run example, just ahead of Kris Meeke in the Ctroen C2.

The three points earned by Broccoli in Spain allowed him to finish the JWRC season in tenth place, with a total of nine points.

HF Grifone's Alan Scorcioni and Fulvio Florean, in seventh place, delayed by two punctures, were the only other Punto crew to survive the rigorous event.

Luca Tabaton, in the second HF Grifone entry, crashed out on stage 18, while the following test accounted for the disappearance from the fray of Luca Betti's Hi-Tec run car.

by Edd Ellison & Marco Tenuti

FIA WRC Catalunya Rally, final Super 1600 postions: 1st (14th overall) Nicolas Bernardi Renault Clio 2:43.45.5, 2nd (15th) Giandomenico Basso Fiat Punto Abarth +2:43.49.8, 3rd (16th) Per-Gunnar Andersson Suzuki Ignis +2:44.28.9, 4th (17th) Guy Wilks Suzuki Ignis +2:44.35.3, 5th (18th) Jari-Matti Latvala Suzuki Ignis +2:44.59.9