IRC – Basso wins at the wire in San Marino

Giandomenico Basso and Andreas Mikkelsen engaged in one of the most beautiful duels in the history of the discipline in San Marino and it was ultimately the Italian who won by 2” ahead of the Norwegian. The Italian, who scored the first victory for a Fiesta RRC in IRC, shared the lead of the event with the Championship leader with three stages to go. “It’s a fantastic result, I’m really happy. Andreas is a very good driver”, commented the winner at the finish line.

The Skoda driver may be disappointed to fail with such a small gap but his prospects of success in the Championship are starting to take on weight, the Norwegian now having 107 points compared to 83 for Jan Kopecky, his closest rival, absent from this Italian event . “I tried everything, it was an intense fight and the best one won”, modestly declares the 2011 champion.

The podium is completed by local driver Umberto Scandola, who was able to protect his third place throughout the event with his Fabia S2000. Sepp Wiegand (Fabia S2000) failed at the foot of the podium in front of the Subaru Impreza Sti R4 of Jarkko Nikara. Gergély Szabo completes the top six with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4. Germain Bonnefis, author of a scratch for his first rally in IRC, had moved up to seventh place after losing several minutes at the start of the race following mechanical problems. The Frenchman retired one stage from the finish and it was ultimately Marco Tempestini (Impreza) who recovered seventh position. Harry Hunt won in 2WD by taking tenth place with his Citroën DS3 R3T.

Discover the report from the San Marino Rally in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.