Italian makes it four-from-four with Portuguese success.
Peugeot Italy's Luca Rossetti maintained his 100 per cent success rate in the IRC by winning the Vodafone Rally de Portugal comfortably after his rivals hit trouble on Saturday's six stages.
The victory marks Rossetti's fourth success in four appearance in the IRC - after Ypres and Sanremo in 2007 and Istanbul this year - making him the most successful driver in the history of the series so far.
Rossetti was in the thick of an intense fight for the lead with Peugeot Belgium driver Nicolas Vouilloz throughout most of the rally, and started the final day with an advantage of just 2.4secs. However, on Saturday morning, Vouilloz chose slightly softer tyres than Rossetti and started to drop behind. However, it was a puncture, which he was forced to stop and change, that finally dropped the Frenchman out of contention for the win.
"It's been a fantastic battle from the beginning, and I'm overjoyed to win my fourth IRC rally," Rossetti, who now enjoys a six-point overall lead of the championship, commented, "Just as was the case in Turkey at the start of the season, I really didn't expect this. To be competing against such a high-quality field of drivers, with even Marcus Gronholm as the zero car, was a very big honour for me and my co-driver."
That meant that the provisional second place went, briefly, to Belgian star Francois Duval, who had climbed up the order despite the handicap of starting first on the road on Friday. However, the Belgian's challenge for the lead was halted by a wheel bearing failure on SS10, ensuring that Rossetti was able to safeguard his advantage over new second place man Jan Kopecky for the final three stages. Kopecky's result moves him up to third place overall in the standings.
Former World Rally champion Didier Auriol retired his Grande Punto on the stage after Duval with suspension failure, allowing the recovering Vouilloz to claim the final podium place and consolidate his second place in the standings.
Fourth place was decided on the final stage of the rally, after a spectacular battle between Giandomenico Basso's Abarth and Finn Juho Hanninen in a Mitsubishi. In the end, Basso claimed the advantage by just 2.5secs and opened his points-scoring account for the season.
Miguel Campos was lying eighth overall with the BFGoodrich- and Portugal-liveried Peugeot when it was cruelly sidelined on the road section back to the end-of-rally parc ferme in the Algarve Stadium.
"Sport can be so cruel at times!" team boss Marc van Dalen admitted, "Retiring so close to the finish was a bitter blow, but that's rallying and we fully respect the rule that precludes anybody from helping a crew outside of the service park. Miguel's alternator failed at the end of SS11, but held for the next two stages, although it didn't last for the final 60km run to the finish."
Andreas Aigner gave the Red Bull Rally Team cause for satisfaction after a difficult rally by claiming ninth place. The Austrian went into the final day simply aiming to perform various tests with new tyre and chassis set-ups, he managed to move up the order with a storming finish that saw him post the best time of the last stage and second on SS11.
"That was a really pleasing end to the day," Aigner commented, "I was really happy with the second round. I have to thank to the team as it was a perfect team performance once again. We were just missing a slice of fortune this time. I can now go to Greece for the next PWRC run full of confidence."
Marco Cavigioli won the IRC 2WD Cup in a Fiat Grande Punto diesel, finishing 15th in the IRC rankings, to claim the joint lead of the series and reinforce Fiat's lead of the 2WD manufacturers' rankings.
Results - Rally Portugal:
1. Rossetti/Chiarcossi Peugeot 207 S2000 2h 57m 50.1s
2. Kopecky/Stary Peugeot 207 S2000 +45.8s
3. Vouilloz/Klinger Peugeot 207 S2000 +1m37.8s
4. Basso/Dotta Abarth Grande Punto +2m18.7s
5. Hanninen/Markkula Mitsubishi Lancer Gp.N +2m21.2s
6. Magalhaes/Castro Peugeot 207 S2000 +3m11.6s
7. Stohl/Minor Peugeot 207 S2000 +3m51.3s
8. Campos/Babo Peugeot 207 S2000 +4m32.3s
9. Aigner/Wicha Mitsubishi Lancer Gp.N +8m09.5s
10. Peres/Dias Mitsubishi Lancer Gp.N +10m46.4s
2WD: Marco Cavigioli Abarth Grande Punto Diesel
Standings (after 2 rounds)
1. Rossetti 20pts
2. Vouilloz 14
3. Kopecky 12
4. Alen 6
5. Basso 5
Travaglia 5
7. Hanninen 4
8. Magalhaes 3
Sola 3
10. Stohl 2
Isik 2
1. Peugeot 36
2. Abarth 16
3. Mitsubishi 4
