IRC – Giandomenico Basso wins Sanremo

Giandomenico Basso will have dominated from start to finish the Rally Sanremo to win for the second time in its local event. Jan Kopecky was the only one to keep up with the pace of the local drivers by placing second, 35 seconds behind the winner, without having managed to follow the Fiesta RRC which took the lead in the race after the Ronde special, justice of the peace of the event with its 44km contested at night. Alessandro Perico completes the podium after taking advantage of the retirement of Juho Hänninen who ended his race on the famous course with a Fabia S2000 stuck on the roof of a house located below the road!

Stefano Albertini fails at the foot of the podium with his 207 S2000. The Italian is more than 47 seconds ahead of his compatriot Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot ). Craig Breen (Peugeot) put in a good performance for his first participation in Sanremo, taking sixth position, one minute behind the top five. Frigyes Turan (Ford) ranks seventh after losing time due to engine overheating. Simone Campedelli put in a very good performance with his Citroën DS3 R3T, taking eighth place and winning the 2WD category. Pierre Campana (Peugeot) lost his chances of a good result after breaking the rear differential of his 207 S2000 in the long course of the Ronde, but the Bastiais made a solid comeback at the end of the event to finish in ninth place with 12 seconds ahead of Roberto Vescovi's Clio R3.

It was once again an Italian who won the Production Cup with the victory of Federico Gasperetti on Renault Mégane RS. For the Peugeot 208 R2's first competitive outing, Bryan Bouffier took seventh place in the category. Robert Consani lost big in this event by retiring with his Renault Mégane RS.

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