Republic of San Marino, 11 July 2015 – The fifth round of the Italian Rally Championship, race valid for the Italian Rally Junior, as fourth round of the Gravel Trophy and as second round of the Italian Cross Country championship is getting to its end after the first intense racing day.
After eight stages of the nine scheduled, Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi on the 208 T16 R5, are leading the classification, ahead of a very good Simone Campedelli and Danilo Fappani, on the Peugeot 207 S2000. The Tuscan driver is leading the pack with 17.9s advantage over the driver from Romagna. The third place is currently occupied by Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai on the GPL powered Ford Fiesta at 1'22''3s.
This has been an exciting but quite tricky day that cost a lot of important retirements. The first of all has been that of Umberto Scandola and Guido D'Amore on Skoda Fabia R5 early on. The Veronese driver set the quickest time in the opening stage, but was forced to the retirement in the second stage due to an excursion. Another unlucky protagonist of this race, the driver from Paris Sebastien Chardonnet, had to stop due to the failuer of a collector of his Ford Fiesta R5. Among the other drivers in the Italian Rally, the Italo-Swiss Stefano Baccega will try and get back tomorrow using the Super Rally formula on his Mitsubishi.
Behind the top three, an extraordinary Filippo Reggini, Skoda Fabia S2000, is leading the two that fight for heavy points for the Gravel Trophy: Mauro Trentin from Trento, on Peugeot 207 S2000, and the driver from Brescia Luigi Ricci, on Ford Fiesta R5. The seventh absolute place is so far occupied by another local hero, Daniele Ceccoli on Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. The eighth and ninth absolute place was obtained by the two of the protagonists of the Gravel Trophy, Pablo Biolghini and Luciano Cobbe. The provisional top ten was rounded up by Michele Tassone, Peugeot 208 R2. The driver from Cuneo managed in fact to get past Nicolò Marchioro, also on Peugeot 208 R2, that has been leading the absolute classification of the youngsters competing in the Italian Rally Junior Championship until the sixth stage where he got a front left puncture. The driver from Este is second anyway, ahead of the Tuscan Luca Panzani, who is leading the Twingo R2 Top Trophy.

The final verdict of day one will follow tonight's spectacle stage of "San Marino" scheduled for 21:30. Two loops of the historic stage of "Sestino", for a total of 13.24 km, will proceed the final flag tomorrow at the Mutlieventi Domus Sport of San Marino. The appointment with ACI Sport's live streaming of tomorrow close to the finish line is set for 12.30. The second special of Rai Sport will be tonight at 20.00.

Absolute classification of the 43rd San Marino Rally Day 1 – after 8 stages: 1. Andreucci-Andreussi (Peugeot 208 T16 R5) in 1:12'28.1 ; 2.Campedelli-Fappani (Peugeot 207 S2000);3. Basso-Granai (Ford Fiesta R5 Ldi) at 1'22.3;4. Reggini-Bizzocchi (Skoda Fabia S2000) at 2'16.0 ;5.Trentin-De Marco (Peugeot 207 S2000) at 2'33.4; 6.Ricci-Pfister (Ford Fiesta R5) at 2'52.6; 7. Ceccoli-Biondi (Mitusbishi Lancer Evo IX) at 4'46.3; 8.Biolghini-Castiglioni (Skoda Fabia S2000) at 5'03.9 ;9. Cobbe-Turco (Ford Fiesta S2000) at 5'30.8.; 10.Tassone-Michi ( Peugeto 208 R2) at 6'58.6.