Luca Rossetti and Matteo Chiarcossi took their BFGoodrich-equipped Peugeot 207 to their fourth IRC victory from four starts today in Portugal. Following their recent win in Turkey, the Italian pair came up with the goods yet again to claim the Algarve-based event ahead of the Czech Republic's Jan Kopecky (Peugeot) and 2007 IRC runner-up Nicolas Vouilloz (Peugeot).
The BFGoodrich Drivers Team operation was a popular success despite the dramatic last-minute retirement of Miguel Campos/Paulo Babo on the final road section while they were lying eighth.
Is anyone capable of rivalling Luca Rossetti in this year's Intercontinental Rally Challenge? Since the Italian's debut in the series twelve months ago, all his rivals have bitten the dust in their bid to prevent him from taking the spoils in the rounds he has contested with his Peugeot/BFGoodrich.
This weekend, not one of the four former World Champions or the two past European Champions entered for the 2008 Rally de Portugal was able to challenge the Pordenone-based driver, despite the furious pace which produced significant improvements in stage times compared to those posted by the top S2000 cars on the same tests in 2007: SS8 (16km, 26s quicker) and SS9 (25km, 43s faster)!
After claiming the short super-special through the spectator-lined streets of Faro on Thursday evening, Luca Rossetti completed the long first day on top of the provisional leaderboard after 118km of against-the-clock action over the dusty tracks of the Algarve.
Yesterday evening, however, experts were predicting that the Italian would have trouble holding on to his lead since the Peugeot 207 driver would be first on the road today and would consequently find himself sweeping a cleaner line for his rivals running further down the road order. But that simply wasn't to be the case!
Having chosen re-cut hard compound BFGoodrich g-Force Gravel tyres for the morning's stages, he posted the fastest time on SS8 to strengthen his lead before his main opponents started to fall from contention one by one. François Duval (Abarth) had just eased into second place, for example, when he was halted by a wheel-bearing failure, while Nicolas Vouilloz (Peugeot) dropped back from third after picking up a puncture.
Jan Kopecky (Peugeot) was already familiar with certain stages for having contested the same event last year when it was a WRC qualifying round. The quick and consistent Czech was finally rewarded with the silver medal which, following his fifth place in Turkey, makes him a serious candidate for this year's IRC title.
Following the retirement of the 1994 World Rally Champion Didier Auriol (Abarth) shortly before the finish with a suspension problem, Nicolas Vouilloz managed to recover the third spot, which is the minimum he could have hoped for after collecting the highest number of stage wins in the course of the weekend.
The all-Peugeot/BFGoodrich podium saw three French cars finish ahead of Giandomenico Basso (4th, Abarth) who was the only Abarth driver to finish inside the top-ten! His team-mate Anton Alén was initially forced out by clutch trouble on Friday and was then again sidelined today – this time by gearbox problems – after re-joining under the SupeRally ruling.
Portugal's national champion Bruno Magalhaes (Peugeot) led after SS3 but then threw away any chance of winning on home soil in an off on SS4. He managed to fight his way back up the order, though, and his efforts were rewarded with sixth place (and best Portuguese finisher), ahead of Austria's Manfred Stohl.
Miguel Campos, who was selected to represent the BFGoodrich Drivers Team operation in Portugal, suffered the misfortune of retiring with a broken alternator on the road section back to the final service halt. He was eighth overall at the time, but the incident failed to dampen the enthusiasm generated by the operation.
Luca Rossetti, 1st, Peugeot:
"My secret? I try to keep a cool head, not make any mistakes and steer clear of punctures. I was delighted with my BFGoodrich tyres this weekend. We chose the right compound for all four groups of stages and the hard compound was the ideal option on Friday afternoon."
Jan Kopecky, 2nd, Peugeot:
"My BFGoodrich g-Force Gravel tyres performed very well despite this weekend's difficult conditions. I didn't have a single puncture."
Nicolas Vouilloz, 3rd, Peugeot:
"I perhaps need to start winning fewer stages! And maybe I should have opted for the hard compound this afternoon, but I thought there would be more loose gravel. I punctured on the inside of a corner 600m after the start of SS10."
Jacques Morelli, IRC Programme Manager, BFGoodrich:
"The 2007 Rally de Portugal was a tough event on tyres because mousse run-flat systems are not authorised, this year's visit to the Algarve was always going to be a difficult challenge. After the Istanbul Rally, we strengthened the g-Force Gravel by adding extra protective sidewall beading in order to reduce the risk of punctures. Even so, given this weekend's rough stages, and also the ferocity of the fight, with drivers constantly cutting the apexes, punctures were inevitable. Even Marcus Grönholm in the zero car running on the products of a rival brand punctured twice on Friday! The Rally de Portugal was undoubtedly a punishing event of this beginning of the season from the tyre point of view."
Patrick Letort, Chief Technician, BFGoodrich:
"For this event's rough, hard-wearing stages, we brought two types of compound for our partners: the medium compound g-Force Gravel ZS5 and the hard compound g-Force Gravel ZS6. The occasional shower made tyre choices difficult at times. On the first day, it was raining at service when the drivers had to select their tyres for the afternoon's loop. Only Peugeot's Rossetti, Vouilloz, Loix and Campos dared gamble on hard compound tyres, but that turned out to be the ideal choice since only the first stage of the group was damp. Today, Rossetti and Basso ran on the hard tyres all day, while Vouilloz and Auriol both opted for the medium compound."
