Fiat really are back again! For the second IRC rally running, Giandomenico Basso's Grande Punto S2000 ran away from the large Peugeot opposition to win the traditional three day Sanremo Rally. This all-asphalt rally was held as usual over mountains and narrow roads in the hinterland of the Ligurian Coast in north west Italy. At stake were the IRC and the Italian championships, and once again the stages were ideal territory for Super 2000 cars. As threatened in Madeira and evidenced in Asturias. Fiats were back again in form, none so much as Giandomenico Basso. Basso made a conservative choice of tyres for the opening stages and his Fiat teammate Umberto Scandola took an early lead before he braked too late for a bend and wrecked his suspension. This happened on a remarkable 60km stage which changed the course of the event. Basso now had more suitable tyres and jumped into the lead, but both Andrea Navarra and Didier Auriol retired with gearbox troubles. Only seven cars completed the stage before Sandro Sottile impaled his Peugeot on a guardrail and completely blocked the route.

Basso pushed hard on the second day and found himself 41 seconds ahead of Luca Rossetti, who was cautiously avoiding risk on his way to the Italian championship, while IRC leader Vouilloz was content in fourth place behind his Kronos teammate Loix. Then another stage was stopped, this time when ninth placed Bernd Casier (VW) stopped in a narrow part of the course.

Loix had transmission trouble on the final day. Immediately Vouilloz passed him into third place and on the final stage Travaglia passed him as well. Basso was careful on the dirty roads first time through on the Saturday stages and then attacked to make more best times on the final two stages. Vouilloz also attacked and passed Rossetti into second place, but Rossetti's third place was enough to give him the Italian national title. Paolo Andreucci (Mitsubishi) dropped behind the highest placed orthodox Group N car of Piero Longhi (Subaru) back when he had a puncture on the final day. Elwis Chantre was in line to finish best two-wheel drive car in his Citroen C2 S1600 but stopped on the final stage, so this honour went to the Clio R3 of Roberto Vercovi (Renault) ahead of the R3 Honda of Bettega. Vouilloz therefore went home from Italy with a healthy lead in the IRC but although there are only two events to go, the championship situation is complicated by dropped scores rule. Basso, Loix and Rossetti can also all win the series

3mmm
photo 1: Basso - Fiat
photo 2: Rossetti - Peugeot
photo 3: Longhi - Subaru
photo 4: Bettega - Honda

Final classification Sanremo Rally
1 Basso/Dotta            Fiat Grande Punto S2000       2h56m25.4s
2 Vouilloz/Klinger       Peugeot 207 S2000             2h57m08.0s
3 Rossetti/Chiarcossi    Peugeot 207 S2000             2h57m34.7s
4 Travaglia/Granai       Fiat Grande Punto S2000       2h58m46.3s
5 Loix/Buysmans          Peugeot 207 S2000             2h59m30.2s
6 Perico/Carrara         Peugeot 207 S2000             3h01m00.8s
7 Cantamessa/Capolongo   Peugeot 207 S2000             3h02m09.6s
8 Longhi/Imerito         Subaru Impreza N14            3h02m20.0s

Drivers classification: Vouilloz 60p; Basso 42p; Loix 39p; Rossetti 38p; Travaglia 19p; Alen 18p; Kopecky 15p; Hanninen 14p; etc
Teams classification: Peugeot 131p; Abarth 79p; Mitsubishi 10p; VW 5p