Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Elia Ometto wanted to make up for the painful (for morale) exit at the Piedmont Region Rally and they did it in style, winning the 108th edition of the Targa Florio Rally on the Citroen C3 Rally2 of the FPF Sport team.
That of the reigning Italian champion crew was not a simple victory, but a test of strength demonstrating how, to date, the crew-car package is still the best on Italian asphalt. It is no coincidence that Crugnola managed to bring home 7 specials out of the 9 scheduled, effectively leaving only crumbs to the others.
Giandomenico Basso, winner in Piedmont a few weeks ago and Crugnola’s first rival, tried to resist the Varese native both yesterday and in today’s first lap, but almost never got the better of the Italian champion.
Basso only won one special stage, one of the two left by Crugnola (while the other was won by Simone Campedelli), finishing the race 15.9 seconds behind his rival, without ever having the opportunity to put him under pressure.
Even Basso, however, never had to look over his shoulder with worry, because Simone Campedelli finished third, but 10 seconds behind him and 25″2 from Crugnola. The gaps were large, so much so that the Romagna rider found himself Giacomo Scattolon closed the race with a 14 second margin over the fourth place finisher with the second Citroen C3 Rally2 in the top 5 positions.
Bostjan Avbelj instead tried to fight with Scattolon for fourth place, but in the end he had to settle for finishing the Top 5 ahead of Marco Signor in the Skoda Fabia Rs Rally2 and Alessandro Re in his Volkswagen Polo GTi R5.
Andrea Mabellini, at the wheel of another Fabia RS Rally2, preceded the home idol, Andrea Nucita with the first Hyundai i20 N Rally2, by just 2.3 seconds. The Top 10 was instead closed by a prestigious crew, namely the one formed by the 11-time Italian champion Paolo Andreucci and Rudy Briani on Citroen C3 Rally2 Paolo, after a good first lap in which he found himself in the top positions, progressively lost ground, until finishing 1 and a half minutes behind the winner. .
#CIAR #Crugnola #redeems #wins #Targa #Florio #Rally
