29.08.2004 Giandomenico Basso stormed to victory on the Rally Alpi Orientali after dominating the event from stage one, fending off a top-class opposition that was unable to match his pace

Italian rally star Giandomenico Basso stormed to victory yesterday on the 40th Rally Alpi Orientali after dominating the event right from stage one, and along the way crushing a top-class opposition that was unable to live with his pace.

As was predicted prior to the event, the highly agile two wheel drive Fiat Punto Abarth Rally would be the car to have over the tight and twisty dry asphalt alpine roads.

And so it proved, as the powerful four wheel drive machines, including the Mitsubishi Evo VII and Subaru Impreza STi, were left floundering by the top Super 1600 runners: Giandomenico Basso and Paolo Andreucci in the Puntos, and Andrea Dallavilla in the Renault Clio.

However, while both Andreucci and Davallvilla put in strong challenges, they faded after suffering incidents along the way, leaving the Movisport-run Basso, with Mitia Dotta as usual alongside, to uphold Fiat's honour alone.

The Venetian driver was able to cruise to the finish line, with the eventual second placed finisher Piero Longhi (Subaru Impreza STi), a huge 1:23.2 adrift, while championship leader Andrea Navarra, in a similar car, finished hot on Longhi's heels to claim the final podium position.

Reigning Italian Rally Champions, Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi, saw their title ambitions take a knock after they suffered a puncture, eventually finishing fourth overall, but still a strong second in Super 1600, in their Procar-run Punto, 1:51.1 down on Basso, at the conclusion of the two day event.

Highly rated youngsters, Matteo Gamba and Marco Ruffini, finished a highly credible fifth in Super1600 and eighth place overall, in their Procar-entered Punto Abarth.

The rally had started from the historic centre of the beautiful Alpine town of Udine on Friday morning. The record field, which included Mitropa Cup and Alpina Historic entrants, tackling six stages that made up the first leg, of a 12-stage, 209.2km timed distance, two day event.

From the off Basso was unstoppable, claiming fastest time on the opening four stages, and by the time the competitors returned to Udine in the beautiful evening sunshine, Basso had taken fastest time on five of the first leg's six stages.

Andreucci made it a clean sweep for the Fiat crews after posting fastest time on stage five. Dallavilla in the Renault Clio and Rossetti in the Citroen C2 made it four Super 1600 cars in the top four positions overall, while it got better for the Fiat driver's title ambitions as the Subaru pilots were struggling: Longhi could manage no better than fifth place while Navarra was floundering back in seventh.

Day two saw three stages: Matajur (19.97km), Drenchio (14.79km) and Trivio (21.05km) repeated twice, to form a final leg of six stages, before the cars returned once again to Udine for the finish.

While Basso was aiming to protect his lead, the victor of the last round of the series was to face a hard-charging opposition: Andreucci wanted maximum points to close the title gap, the 4x4 pilots, Navarra and Longhi, wanted to make up the embarrassing day one time deficit, while Dallavilla in the Renault Clio, and Rossetti in the new Citroen C2, were aiming for glory in their nimble Super 1600 machines, ideally suited to the final day's twisty roads.

However it was Andreucci who took the challenge to Basso. Fastest on the first stage of the day, the 21.05km Trivio, he lopped more than four seconds off his deficit to Basso, closing the gap to 8.6 seconds.

The second stage, the 14.79km Drenchia, was won by Rossetti in the Citroen, making only its second Italian appearance, while Basso pipped Andreucci by just 0.01 seconds to keep the gap stable.

Stage nine, the 19.97km Matajur saw Anderucci fastest, shaving a second off Basso, to close the gap down to 7.7 seconds. Now it was back to Trivio for the second running of this stage, the longest of the day, and Andreucci kept piling on the pressure, going fastest, and slicing a massive 5 seconds off Basso's lead.

The pressure was now on, entering the tenth stage the gap was just 2.7 seconds. Basso went fastest, but it all went horribly wrong for Andreucci, as he cut a corner too tightly and suffered a puncture which cost him more than two minutes by the time he had stopped to change the wheel. The incident instantly ended his bid for victory, and dropped him down to fifth place overall.

Andreucci took a consolation fastest time on the final stage, but by this point Basso had backed right off to preserve his minute-and-a-half lead over Longhi, while the disappearance on this final stage of third placed Rossetti was an unexpected bonus for Andreucci, allowing him to move up a place and finish fourth.

In the Italian Rally Championship overall classification, Navarra holds onto his series lead, and is now up to 101 points while Longhi closes up slightly to lie just nine points adrift.

Andreucci is still third on 82 points, but with two consecutive maximum scores Basso is breathing down his neck, just eight points further back. In the manufacturer's race Subaru have 129 points with Fiat on 111 points.

Nine Fiat Stilo Cup runners joined the event for day two's six stages, shortened to five when they missed out the opening stage of the second leg. Just four runners made it to the finish Paolo Sottosanti taking the win 20.7 seconds ahead of title contender Christian Chemin.

Stilo championship leader, Andrea Perego, dropped out with two stages to go, squandering his comfortable series lead, and allowing Chemin to close the gap right up.

by Marco Tenuti in Udine