Simone Campedelli king in the first day of the Sanremo

Three stages won and an aggressive and fast race conduct in every situation give the Cesena driver the leadership of the race ahead of Giandomenico Basso. The almost seventy kilometres of the second day may still hold surprises in store.

SANREMO (IM), 18 October – The first day of the 71st Rallye Sanremo came to a close with the long Calderara-Soldano night stage of 26.72 between two wings of spectators despite the darkness and humidity, with Simone Campedelli-Tania Canton sealing a hat-trick of special stage successes after leaving the short Montalto-Molini di Triora stage to Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Ometto.
Campedelli also won the fourth stage with ease, interpreting in the best possible way the change of asphalt and the different humidity in the wet ground in the first part and dry in the final. The driver from Cesena goes into the night’s rest in the lead with 2‘7 over Giandomenico Basso-Lorenzo Granai who in the Ghimbegna-Soldano pay 1’ to Campedelli after making a brave choice of tyres with four moulds on the wheels of their Toyota, while most of the other competitors chose to mount two rain and two moulds on their cars. Third place went to Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Ometto, who paid another 3‘1 to Campedelli on this stage, increasing the gap to the Island Motorsport
crew to 11’8 while maintaining the serenity of those who have already won: ‘This long night stage is beautiful. We are not risking anything and the difficulty lies in mediating between the need to go fast and, at the same time, not to risk anything’. In fourth position remains Paolo Andreucci and Rudi Briani at 25″4 from Campedelli, fifth time just 1/10 from the very young Roberto Daprà flanked by Luca Guglielmetti who follows him in the ranking. Marco Signor climbs up to sixth position both in the stage and in the overall standings with Daniele Michi on the right seat who takes advantage of a puncture of Mabellini-Lenzi who run about ten kilometres with a punctured
tyre, dropping to ninth position overall.