Special Stage 7 of the Piedmont Region Rally risks being the real watershed of the second appointment of the CIAR 2024. Everything happened on the 14.10 kilometer Loazzolo – Santo Stefano 1, starting with the now former leader of the event.
Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Elia Ometto went off the road, fortunately without significantly damaging their Citroen C3 Rally2. This helped them get back into practice and finish it, despite losing over 2 minutes to the best.
This means that the Varese native is no longer leader of the general classification. Now in front of everyone are Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai on the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
The Venetian now has the great opportunity to give Toyota its first overall success in the CIAR with the GR Yaris Rally2, considering that the first of the opponents is Stéphane Lefebvre, second, 7″6 behind him with 2 special stages to go until the end of the event .
Crugnola, as mentioned, returned to qualifying and also gained the satisfaction of winning other special stages, but his race is now compromised as he finds himself in 27th position overall, 3 minutes behind Basso.
The reigning Italian champion's crash not only allowed Stéphane Lefebvre to climb to second place, but also Bostjan Avbelj to climb into the podium area, third, despite being trailed by 3 seconds clear of Simone Campedelli. The rider from Romagna sees the possibility of grabbing the Top 3 and will certainly try to beat his rival in the last tests of the day to do so.
In Special Stage 6, the 14.82 kilometer Vesime 1, Luca Bottarelli's car was set on fire. The driver and his co-driver Manuel Fenoli went off the road and their Skoda Fabia caught fire with the two already out of the cockpit and unharmed. Paolo Andreucci, who arrived at the accident site, tried to lend a hand to the two but there was now no way to save the car, which ended up burned by the flames. The good thing is that no one was physically harmed.
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