22/08/2009: Barum Rally - Basso out, Rossetti 7th

The Grande Punto Abarth S2000 works crews have not been lucky at the Czech Republic's Barum Rally, the eighth round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which also counts towards the European Rally Championship. After having demonstrated that they were able to fight for victory, Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta have been involved in an off-road excursion in the last but one special stage of the first leg. A steering arm broke in the incident, forcing the crew to retire. Before that, they had maintained overall third position in what is a very difficult event where special stages are extremely fast (some are covered at an average speed of 120kph) and feature very narrow roads.

On the other hand, Luca Rossetti and Matteo Chiarcossi finished the day in seventh place after having been victim of a puncture and a small off.

The second and last leg takes place on Sunday 23 August, with another six special stages. Basso will probably be at the start as the damage on his Grande Punto Abarth S2000 was cosmetic. Thus, he will be able to tackle the second leg under SUPERally regulations, which allow drivers to score points in the European Rally Championship, where Basso currently leads the standings.

Barum Rally classification at the end of leg 1:
1. Kopecký-Stary (Skoda Fabia S2000) in 1hour 27min22.1s;
2. Loix-Miclotte (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 1min01.6s;
3. Meeke-Nagle (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 1min10.0s;
4. Hänninen-Markkula (Skoda Fabia S2000) + 1min29.3s;
5. Kresta-Gross (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 1min42.2s;
6. Prokop-Tománek (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 2min10.5s;
7. Rossetti-Chiarcossi (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) + 2min50.9s;
8. Solowow-Baran (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 4min27.1s.