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As had
been widely predicted, the factory-run Fiat Grande Punto
Rally Super2000 dominated the all-asphalt Rally del Friuli e
delle Alpi Orientali this weekend, the eighth round of the
2006 Italian Rally Championship (CIR) with Paolo
Andreucci/Anna Andreucci and Andrea Navarra/Guido D’Amore
finishing in a very comfortable 1-2 formation and allowing
the former to open up a four point advantage over Piero
Longhi (Subaru Impreza STi) in the series points standings.
Sitting
on 44 points, Paolo Andreucci had arrived at the Rally del
Friuli e delle Alpi Orientali on an equal footing with his
2006 Italian Rally Championship title rival, Piero Longhi,
who won this event in 2005. The pair have both scored
consistently well all year, although three wins for the Fiat
driver compared to two for the Subaru pilot gave the former
the edge at the top of the table. Andreucci’s two
non-finishes out of seven rallies, however, compared to just
one for Longhi, has kept the championship table extremely
tight. “It is a very difficult event,” Andreucci explained
of the Rally del Friuli e Alpi Orientai. “When we run in
these mountains, the meteorological conditions can quickly
change, making the choice of the tyres very difficult for
us.” Meanwhile, his long-term co-driver Anna Andreussi, who
was born in and is a resident of Udine, was looking forward
to the rally: “To win in my city would be a perfect result,
but to be able to achieve this we will have to maintain the
maximum concentration.”
Fiat
team-mate Andrea Navarra arrived at the Rally Alpi Orientali
in third place in the 2006 CIR, eleven points off the
championship lead, and with the expected dominance of the
Super2000 Grande Puntos on this event, he would be looking
to consolidate his third place advantage in the
championship, by increasing the gap to fourth-placed Renato
Travaglia (30 points) and Andrea Dallavilla in fifth (26
points).
The 42nd
Rally del Friuli e delle Alpi Orientali was scheduled to get
underway last Thursday (August 24), with scrutineering set
to be carried out in the sports facility at Cividale from
8:00am to 12:30pm, followed by the shakedown from 2:00pm to
6:30pm in Località Cialla di Prepotto. The popular historic
car rally - which each year shadows the main event - would
start from Piazza Libertà in Udine at 8:31am on the Friday,
whilst the rally ‘proper’ would begin at 11:01am. The
finishing line for both modern and historic cars would be in
Cividale del Friuli, with the historic cars reaching the
town at 1:31pm, while the modern cars would follow at
6:30pm. Saturday, the last day of the rally, was set to
start at 10:01am and finish in the Piazza Libertà, in the
centre of the town, at 5:30pm for the historic cars, and an
hour later for modern cars.
The
schedule for the rally, which qualified for the European
Rally Cup–South-Western Region (Co-efficient 5) as well as
the Italian Rally Championship and the Mitropa Cup, would
take place over twelve timed sections (200.08km of technical
and selective asphalt, covering a total of 466.77km),
divided equally over two days between the Torre and Natisone
Valleys, whereas participants in the 11th Rally del Friuli e
delle Alpi Orientali Historic, which qualified for the
European and Italian Historic Sporting Rally Championship,
would have to face nine special stages covering 143.78km
(out of a total distance of 346.03km).
The Fiat factory drivers
immediately signalled their intent on the very first stage
of the rally, the 20.15km ‘Masaròlis 1’ test, Andreucci
completing the distance fastest in 15:39.5, 0.2 seconds
ahead of his team-mate Navarra, and two seconds in front of
Renato Travaglia (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo), to go into SS2
(‘Valle di Soffumbergo 1’) as the overall rally
leader. Cantamessa won the 9.3km SS2 in 17:23.3, but it was
Travaglia, second-fastest on this occasion and 2.4 seconds
quicker than Andreucci, who vaulted into the rally lead,
albeit by just a slim margin of 0.4 seconds. Travaglia won
the next test, ‘Porzûs 1’, with a time of 13:37.8 over the
17.26km-long stage to open his advantage as the rally leader
to 1.6 seconds over Andreucci, who was second-quickest
(13:39.0).
However, Travaglia hit electrical problems on the next
stage, the second pass through Masaròlis, and although he
lost only 38 seconds to the Fiat driver in the stage and
dropped down to sixth place overall, it would be the end of
his participation in the rally and the end of the only
challenge that the two factory Fiat drivers would face. With
the Mitsubishi driver sidelined, Andreucci won the stage in
14:54.8, just 0.2 of a second ahead of his team-mate. This
result promoted the pair into a 1-2 formation which they
wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the event, Andreucci now
having an 11.7-second cushion over Navarra, with Aghini the
best of the rest, 21 seconds off the lead.
The next stage, SS5, the second running of Vale di
Soffumbergo, saw the Fiat duo again at the top the
timesheets with Andreucci 0.4 seconds ahead of his
team-mate, and the final stage of the day, ‘Porzûs 2’, saw
another 1-2, although on this occasion Navarra grabbed his
first stage win of the rally with a 3.4 second advantage
over Andreucci on the 17.26km test.
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With title rival Piero Longhi able to finish no
higher than third place overall, 1:20.5 adrift, Paolo Andreucci
takes a 4-point championship advantage away from the
Alpine stage rally which they had gone into tied on points with
the Subaru Impreza STi pilot. |
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Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi ran out comfortable
winners of the 42nd Rally del Friuli e delle Alpi
Orientali, with a 12-second cushion over their team mates
Andrea Navarra and Guido d'Amore. |
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Andreucci thus rolled into overnight parc fermé as rally
leader with an 8.7 second advantage over Navarra, with the
best non-Fiat driver being Andrea Aghini’s Subaru Impreza in
third place, 32.4 seconds in arrears of Andreucci. The Fiat
driver’s main title rival, Longhi, was fourth, 37.4 seconds
back, the Subaru pilot happy to be as high as possible on
the leaderboard on an event that simple didn’t suit the
characteristics of the turbocharged 4WD Group N
machines. Fifth was Dallavilla, the best-placed of the
Mitsubishi Evo runners, 48.9 seconds off the lead, whilst in
sixth was the fastest Super1600 car, the Peugeot 206 S1600
of Luca Rossetti, 59.6 seconds adrift of the action at the
head of the leaderboard.
Leg 2 (Saturday) started with
SS7, the 17.8km ‘Trìvio 1’ test, and Andreucci continued
right where he had left off the day before by going fastest,
in the process opening out his advantage over his team mate
to 19.8 seconds, after Navarra could manage only the
seventh-quickest time. SS8, the 16.2km ‘Trìbil 1’ stage, saw
Rosetti in the Super1600 Peugeot pull out a remarkable
performance, posting the fastest time overall. This helped
to evoke memories of the competitiveness of Super1600 cars
on this event in recent years, but with Andreucci just 3.3
seconds behind on the stage and Navarra only a further 0.3
seconds slower, Andreucci’s advantage at the front still
grew to 52.9 seconds over the third-placed Aghini. The
19.97km SS9, ‘Matajùr 1’, was another 1-2 for Fiat, although
this time Navarra took his first fastest time of the day and
his second of the rally, beating Andreucci by two-tenths of
a second. However, in the championship stakes, there was a
result of greater significance, as Longhi moved up from
fourth to third, and into the best finishing position he
could hope to achieve, barring any problems for the two
unassailable Fiat Super2000 machines.
The final three stages of the
rally saw no change to the overall classification as the
factory Fiat drivers romped to an easy 1-2 victory, with
Andreucci maintaining the upper hand, and Longhi carrying
out ‘damage limitation’ to the best of his abilities as he
consolidated the final podium slot. SS10, the second running
of the Trìvio stage, had seen a dead heat between Andreucci
and Navarra, the pair both racing through the 17.8km test in
12:52.4. Their blistering pace also tipped the advantage for
Andreucci at the front for the first time to over a minute
in hand over the first non-Fiat car on the leaderboard,
Longhi, now 1:04.6 off the lead. Navarra rounded out the
event by claiming two more stage wins, beating his team-mate
by 1.7 seconds on SS11, the repeat run through the Trìbil
test, and by 6.2 seconds on ‘Matajùr 2’, the final stage.
Thus Paolo Andreucci and Anna
Andreussi ran out comfortable winners of the 42nd Rally del
Friuli e Alpi Orientali, with a 12-second cushion over their
teammates Andrea Navarra and Guido D’Amore. With title rival
Piero Longhi able to finish no higher than third, 1:20.5
adrift, the winners took a 4-point championship advantage
away from the rally, which they had gone into tied on points
with the Subaru Impreza pilot. Andrea Aghini was fourth in
another Subaru Impreza,
1:43.4 down on Andreucci, while Luca Rossetti went someway
to rekindling the Super1600 cars’ glory days on this event
by finishing in an impressive fifth place, although he was a
considerable two-and-a-half minutes behind the winning
Fiat. Andrea Dallavilla was the best-placed Mitsubishi
driver in sixth, with Stefano Bizzarri (Renault Clio)
seventh and second in Super1600. The top ten finishers were
completed by Denis Colombini (Subaru Impreza), Andrea Perego
(Subaru Impreza) and Sandro Sottile (Mitsubishi Lancer).
With three
rallies still to be contested in the 2006 ‘Campionato
Italiano Rally’, and a maximum of 30 points still on offer,
the battle between Andreucci and Longhi for the championship
looks set to intensify further. Next up is the Sanremo Rally
(September 15-17), followed by the Rally Costa Smeralda
(October 13-15), before the season wraps up a fortnight
later with the Rally di San Crispino (October 27-29). With
Andreucci and Longhi both scoring consistently and being
very evenly matched, the championship is very likely to go
down to the wire in what is turning into a classic year for
the Italian Rally Championship.
42nd Rally del Friuli e delle
Alpi Orientali
– Final Classification:
1. Andreucci/Andreussi (Fiat Grande Punto) 2 hrs 29:25.8; 2.
Navarra/D’Amore (Fiat Grande Punto) + 12.0; 3. Longhi/Imerito
(Subaru Impreza) 1:20.5; 4. Aghini/Cerrai (Subaru Impreza) +
1:43.4; 5. Rossetti/Chiarcossi (Peugeot 206) + 2:34.3; 6.
Dallavilla/Vernuccio (Mitsubishi Lancer) + 2:47.7; 7.
Bizzarri/Bosi (Renault Clio) + 3:00.3;
8. Colombini/Guglielmini (Subaru Impreza) + 3:32.3; 9.
Perego/De Luis (Subaru Impreza) + 3:36.9; 10. Sottile/Gorni
(Mitsubishi Lancer) + 4:03.2.
CSAI Italian Rally
Championship – Drivers’ standings (after 8 rounds):
1. Andreucci (Fiat) 54 points; 2. Longhi (Subaru) 50; 3.
Navarra (Fiat) 41; 4. Travaglia (Mitsubishi) 30; 5.
Dallavilla (Mitsubishi) 29; 6. Aghini (Mitsubishi) 24; 7.
Cantamessa (Subaru) 20; Sottile (Mitsubishi) 15; Cunico
(Mitsubishi) 12; Bizzarri (Renault) 9.
Trofeo Fiat Abarth
Internazionale: 1. Gatti, 40
points; 2. Vagnini, 24, 3. Alessi, 19; 4. Caldani, 18; 5.
Biasiotto, 15; 6. La Rocca, 8, 7. Sottosanti, 6; 8. Villa
and D’Alto, 4.
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