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Rossetti wins Algarve IRC Rally
• 15 May 2008 •
 THE ITALIAN driver, Luca Rossetti came home the winner of the IRC ‘Rally of Portugal’, which took place in the Algarve last weekend.
With this, his fourth victory, Rosetti maintained his 100 per cent success rate in this year’s International Rally Challenge, making him the most successful driver in the short history of the IRC series so far.
Rossetti, who now enjoys a clear six-point lead in the championship, commented, "It's been a fantastic battle from the beginning and I'm overjoyed to win my fourth IRC rally. Just as was the case in Turkey, at the start of the season, I really didn't expect this. To be competing against such a high-quality field of drivers, with even Marcus Gronholm as the zero car, was a very big honour for me and my co-driver."
Driving for Peugeot Italy, Rossetti was in the thick of an intense battle for the lead with Peugeot Belgium driver, Nicolas Vouilloz, throughout most of the rally, ending the first leg with an advantage of just 2.4 seconds.
In the seven special stages of the first leg, Rosseti was out in front from the beginning. Vouilloz was unfortunate enough to sustain a puncture, and François Duval was forced to retire when only 9.3 seconds behind the leader. In fact, the race was all but decided in those first few minutes.
Taking no risks, Jan Kopecky drove a quiet rally, avoiding the sort of problems that beset Vouilloz and Duval, and coasted home to a guaranteed second place, an un-expected position even for him.
Vouilloz managed to hold on to third place and fourth position was decided in the final stages, after a truly titanic battle between Giandomenico Basso's Abarth and Finn, Juho Hanninen, in a Mitsubishi. In the end, Basso claimed the advantage and opened his points-scoring account for the season.
Once again, Bruno Magalhaes gave the best performance of all the Portuguese drivers. On the first day, the Peugeot driver was well placed but he went off the road in Sao Bras and lost three vital minutes. After that, he concentrated on scoring some points towards the Portuguese championship and ended the rally in sixth place.
Portugal’s Miguel Campos was lying eighth overall with the BFGoodrich and Portugal-liveried Peugeot when it was cruelly sidelined on the road section back to the end-of-rally parc ferme in the Algarve Stadium.
"Sport can be so cruel at times!" team boss Marc van Dalen admitted, "Retiring so close to the finish was a bitter blow but that's rallying and we fully respect the rule that precludes anybody from helping a crew outside of the service park.
Miguel's alternator failed at the end of stage 11 but held for the next two stages, although it didn't last for the final 60km run to the finish."
There were several high-profile retirements during the course of the rally, including the 1994 World Rally Champion, Didier Auriol, who retired his Abarth Grande Punto on stage 11 with suspension failure. Also feeling the pinch were Anton Alen, who was out on the first stage with a clutch problem on his Abarth and Peugeot Belgium's Freddy Loix, who was out after picking up three punctures on Friday, with only two spare wheels.
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