After the learning curve on first leg, and an unexpected snow fall on the second one, the Italian crew raises a bit the overall standings and brings home two points in the IRC series.
It's an upraising epilogue Giandomenico and Mitia's last leg at the 79th Rally Monte Carlo, the Centenary edition of the Monegasque glorious rally.
The end of the long weekly event for the Veneto based crew couldn't have been anything else: the first part on Wednesday was marked as the learning curve with a completely new car, because of the insufficient tests done a week before the Monegasque event, not very useful because of the changing weather conditions. The second leg was considered as optimistics in order increase the pace, but a wrong tire choice excluded them to battle on an unexpected snow on the last two stages on Thursday.
The Friday leg, the third and last of Rallye Monte Carlo 2011, started with the 30 km long morning special stage Montauban S/Ouveze-Eygalayes, where Giandomenico scores the 9th time, which confirms him the 11th overall standings position, at 1'08"5 from tenth driver Toni Gardemeister.
Giandomenico and Mitia opt to wait for the nighty stages to do their best. They maximize their expertize on very long stages and the addictional difficulty of night vision. The first run on Col du Turini states the fourth stage time stratch at 1"4 from the winner Vouilloz.
On the nineteen kilometers of Lantosque-Luceram special stage Gian puts his mark and wins the stage, that lets him move very near to Gardemeister in the overall list, with only an 8"6 delay from the Finnish guy. The Friulmotor team plauses Giandomenico's performance. The guys apply minimal setup changes, and install new tires for the last 42 kilometers. The team manager doesn't forget to say to Giandomenico and Mitia that they need to bring home a result and the car: "It's a Peugeot 207 for customers, not for winning on Col du Turini"!
The tenth overall place is being captured on SS12, the Moulinet-La Bollene-Vesubie repeated stage, with the fourth stage time again at 10"8 from Sarrazin, whilst on the last stage of the rally, Basso stops watches as fifth at 15"2 from Sarrazin and the overall standings acclaims the tenth overall place, being corrected to the ninth place, because of Petter Solberg's retirement due to an alternator broken, which forces him to stop on the road from Luceram to the Monte Carlo closed park.
"I wouldn't have bet a cent to achieve such good scratch times on the last stages, because the drivers on the top of the list were still fighting for the third place, so I'm really satisfied to bring home a special stage victory and two points for the championship", Giandomenico commented just before getting up the Monaco's castle for the rally ending prizes ceremony.
"A lot of people discouraged our initiative, but crossing our trajectories and making the same times of the work teams in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge rises our hopes getting more help and support for this yearly programme", says Giandomenico about his expectations.
Nothing is still completed about the rest of the 2011 championship, but everybody targets Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta again as starring drivers in the intercontinental series, and the team mates won't give up, if somebody wants them in the series.
79th Rallye Monte Carlo 2011 overall standings:
- Bouffier-Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000) in 3h32'55"8
- Loix-Miclotte (Skoda Fabia S2000) +32"5
- Wilks-Pugh (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1'19"7
- Sarrazin-Renucci (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1'21"9
- Delecour-Savignoni (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1'22"4
- Hanninen-Markkula (Skoda Fabio S2000) +1'29"3
- Vouilloz-Veillas (Skoda Fabia S2000) +4'47"8
- Kopecky-Stary (Skoda Fabia S2000) +7'45"9
- BASSO-DOTTA (Peugeot 207 S2000) +8'46"0
- Gardemeister-Tuominen (Peugeot 207 S2000) +9'09"0
- Caffi-Peroglio (Skoda Fabia S2000) +13'06"2
Intercontinental Rally Challenge 2011 Drivers Championship after Rallye Monte Carlo:
- Bouffier Bryan p.25
- Loix Freddy p.18
- Wilks Guy p.15
- Sarrazin Stéphane p.12
- Delecour Francois p.10
- Hanninen Juho p.8
- Vouilloz Nicolas p.6
- Kopecky Jan p.4
- BASSO GIANDOMENICO p.2
- Gardemeister Tony p.1