Il Ciocco, 21 March 2015 - Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta, Ford Fiesta R5 GPL powered ended on top day one of the 38th Rally of Ciocco and Valle del Serchio, the opening round of the the Italian Rally Championship 2015. The driver from Veneto got the lead after ss 3 and authoritatively kept it since then. At the end of day one Basso proceeded the driver from Bergamo Alessandro Perico, on Peugeot 208 R5 by 21 seconds and 5 tenths, while the Tuscany driver Rudy Michelini was third on Citroen DS3 R5 at a minute and three tenths. Perico confirmed to be very quick in Tuscany setting the quickest time in two stages and always being among the pace setters. The fourth time went to the very good Nicola Caldani, from Versilia, who has been the real surprise of the day taking his car wearing Hankook tires on top positions.
The several times Italian champion Paolo Andreucci has been very unlucky even if he started very well on the home streets on his Peugeot 208 T16 R5. Some problems slowed him down in the second stage though as the car ended Renaio's stage with the front right of his car on fire. This fire was due to a problem to the brakes caused by a bottle stuck under the braking pedal.
Unlucky run also for Skoda Motorsport's works team made by Umberto Scandola and Guido D'Amore, on Fabia S2000. The two had to retire due to some mechanical problems at the end of the stage when they were holding absolute P3.

In the Italian Production, the duel involved Giacomo Scattolon on Renault Clio R3 and Fabrizio Andolfi Jr on Renault Clio R3T, as the latter leads also the Renault Clio Trophy.
A great battle lasting for the whole race involved the drivers of the Italian Rally Junior Championship. At the end of leg one Giuseppe Testa of ACI Team Italy led the way from Michele Tassone who is a Peugeot Junior Team driver. In the Junior, Luca Panzani had to retire in the last sage and the lead in the Twingo R2 Top Trophy was therefore inherited by Giorgio Bernardi. In the two wheeled drives a great performance was put in by several drivers and especially by Damiano De Tommaso, who dominated in four stages.
In the absolute classification, a good performance was also put in by Stefano Albertini, Peugeot 208 R5, Ciavarella, Ford Fiesta R5 and Stefano Baccega, also on Ford Fiesta R5. Unlucky run for Luca Rossetti instead who was the first excellent retirement of CIR drivers, as he had to give up on his Renault Clio R3T after ss 1.
In the ACI R1 Trophy, with one run to go, Claudio Gubertini and co-driver Alberto Ialungo, dominate on Suzuki Swift 1.6, leading Uliana by 42.3s and Amorisco by 1'06.8s.
Engines will roar again tomorrow Sunday 22 March for the second, short but tracherous, leg that will comprise the stage "Coreglia" of 20,500 km to be repeated twice. The finish line in Castelnuovo Garfagnana, next to the Porta Ariostesca, will welcome drivers starting from 12,30hrs. Two live streaming sessions by ACI Sport will take place tomorrow:"Coreglia 1", at stage end, stop check, from 8.25hrs to 9.15hrs;"Coreglia 2", at stage end, stop check, from 10.35hrs to 11.30hrs.

FINAL CLASSIFICATION LEG ONE 38th RALLY IL CIOCCO AND VALLE DEL SERCHIO: 1. Basso-Dotta(Ford Fiesta R5 Ldi)in 1:23'16.7;2. Perico-Turati (Peugeot T16 R5) at 21.5; 3.Michelini-Perna(Citroen DS3 R5) at 1'03.1 4.#NC3-Farnocchia (Ford Fiesta R5) at 1'05.3; 5.Albertini-Fappani (Peugeot 208 R5) at 1'33.6;6. Ciava-Ciucci (Ford Fiesta R5)at 2'26.8 ;7. Andreucci- Andreussi ( Peugeot T16 R5) at 3'27.6.; 8.Baccega-Ottaviani (Ford Fiesta R5) at 3'56.8; 9. Testa-Inglesi (Peugeot 208 R2) at 7'05.8; 10. Scattolon-Grimaldi (Renault Clio R3) at 7'32.0.