Basso victorious in Rally 1000 Miglia
Italian crew Giandomenico Basso – Mitia Dotta won the 36th edition of Rally 1000 Miglia, second round of 2012 European Rally Championship. Driving Ford Fiesta S2000, duly dubbed Regional Rally Car, Basso secured fourth consequtive win on this event and added his name to the championship standings.
Second place in a rally that took part on the roads around Brescia went to another Italian Paolo Andreucci in Peugeot, followed by, wait for it, yet another Italian Umberto Scandola in Škoda.
To claim this rally, like majority of ERC events, was far cry from proper all-European event would be grosly unfair, especially with Juho Hanninen taking fourth spot and adding Finland to the list of several countries featured on Rally 1000 Miglia. Oddly enough, Hanninen is also the only one in top 10 with a result from first round of the European Rally Championship in Austria, thus he takes the lead ahead of Jan Kopecky, winner of first rally of the season.
Official review of 36th Rally 1000 Miglia follows. For ERC competitors, next up is Rally Croatia at the end of May.
The three-days-challenge around Brescia highlights the supremacy of the crew Basso-Dotta, debuting on the “Regional” Ford Fiesta S2000 and conquering their 4th success in this race. The rest of the Podium goes to Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot) and Umberto Scandola (Skoda).
Giandomenico Basso, co-driven by Mitia Dotta, is the winner of the 36th edition of Rally 1000 Miglia; he has been dominating the overall classification since SS3, where he remained for the whole race and which signed his triumph in Brescia for the fourth time. Yesterday he “built” an important gap on his first pursuer Andreucci (Peugeot 207 S2000), which reached +37’’7 at the end of Day 1.
The Peugeot factory driver, after an inappropriate choose of tires made on Friday morning, did not manage to contain Basso’s attack neither in the afternoon. Therefore, the six-time Italian Champion decided to work on his gap on Umberto Scandola in the Italian Championship Classification. The crew “signed” Skoda (3rd overall) raced regularly, although it never managed to reach the bagarre for the victory.
The 4th position overall is occupied by Juho Hanninen (Skoda Fabia S2000), at his first experience on the insidious roads of the stages around Brescia. The Skoda Motorsport driver has been a protagonist in the highest part of the classification, until he slightly “touches” a wall on SS11 – “Colle S. Zeno 1” and loses more than a minute. A satisfied Matteo Gamba closes the “top five” preceding Stefano Albertini, 6th overall for the first time on board of the Peugeot 207 S2000 sponsored by ACI-CSAI, Pirelli and Racing Lions.
Luca Betti (Peugeot 207 S2000) ends the race in 7th position. After he finished Day 1 as 5th overall, today he decided to attack: unfortunately, not only he didn’t manage to improve his position, but he also punctured twice (losing a lot of time because he had to change both the tires during the stages and not at the end of them). Marco Signor is in 8th position with the Skoda Fabia S2000 and Gyosher (Peugeot 207 S2000) is 9th (and second among the strangers); the Czech Jan Cerny on Citroen DS3 R3 is 10th overall and winner of the 2WD classification.
The first position in the Italian Junior Championship was achieved by Simone Campedelli (Citroen DS3 R3), the factory driver of Citroen Italia, also winner of the first race of the series. He was able to win the race, nevertheless the breaking of powerstearing during the second day.
Michele Tassone ends the race in second position among drivers of Italian Junior Championship, winning also the standings of Trofeo Renault Twingo Gordini R2 TOP.
Final Overall Classification: 1. BASSO-DOTTA (Ford Fiesta S2000 (1.6 T)) in 3:00’28.2; 2. ANDREUCCI-ANDREUSSI (Peugeot 207 S2000) a 1’18.3; 3. SCANDOLA-D’AMORE (Skoda Fabia S2000) a 1’54.3; 4. HANNINEN-MARKKULA (Skoda Fabia S2000) a 2’14.6; 5. GAMBA-INGLESI (Peugeot 207 S2000) a 3’13.2; 6. ALBERTINI-SCATTOLIN (Peugeot 207 S2000) a 3’38.2; 7. BETTI-BARONE (Peugeot 207 S2000) a 6’28.3; 8. SIGNOR-BERNARDI (Skoda Fabia S2000) a 7’12.9; 9. GYOSHER-SPASOV (Peugeot 207 S2000) a 10’59.0; 10. CERNYKOHOUT (Citroen DS3) a 12’28.6.
