The conclusive day two is scheduled for tomorrow with live coverage on Italian television starting from 13.30 (local time,GMT+2) up to the finish line on the Belvedere of Termini Imerese.
Sting in the tail of the last stage of 95th Targa Florio's day one, fourth round of the Italian Rally Championship. Luca Rossetti and Matteo Chiarcossi on Abarth Grande Punto S2000 were forced to an early retirement due to engine problems, leaving in this way the classification leadership to the official Peugeot team made by Paolo Andreucci andAnna Andreussi on the 207 S2000.
The absolute protagonists of day one battled throughout the stages with Rossetti leading the way since stage one and winning four out of six of the scheduled stages. He seemed to enjoy the setup and the performance of his Grande Punto.
The retirement was therefore bitter as the Italian driver saw a lot of his chances to win the title go with the lead of this race.
The Italian reigning champions on the official Peugeot 207 S2000 won instead stage 3 and 7.
The winners of yesterday's initial stage, Umberto Scandola and Guido D'Amore on Ford Fiesta S2000 were in second position at the end of stage one. The driver from Verona improved his feeling with the insidious stages changing appropriately the car settings at each servicing park.
The provisional third place is currently occupied by the young Marco Runfola, very good on the challenging stages held today on his Peugeot 207 S2000.
Close to the podium of the race, but third of the CIR drivers, was Gianfranco Cunico that knows very well the pitfalls of Sicilian tarmacs and devised a good setup for his Peugeot 207 S2000, in cooperation with his navigator Rudi Pollet. Fifth position for Elwis Chentre on Peugeot 207 S2000. After the third time in stage one, the driver from Aosta slipped down to sixth due to the scarce familiarity with the Sicilian stages and he kept improving his interpretation of the stages managing to recover a position with two stages to the end. The sixth provisional place was obtained by Alessandro Perico on Peugeot 207 S2000, who declared to struggle finding a good setup on his car that does seem to have some problems with the engine.
The PA Racing driver lost two positions in the last two stages.
A bit disappointing was the seventh place obtained by the local driver Totò Riolo on Peugeot 207 S2000, who was slowed down by a penalty in stage 3. He was followed by the other local driver
Filippo Vara on a twin car, then Alessio Pisi and Antonio Stagno on 207 completed the top ten of the day.
On top of the Junior CIR classification as well as of the two wheel drive cars, thanks to the absolute eleventh position, was the 21 years old from Messina Andrea Nucita, navigated by Sara Cotone on Renault New Clio R3, that appeared to be at ease since the beginning on the stages of the Targa despite being a rookie of the race.
Nucita is also leading the two wheel drive cars and the Renault single brand classification that devised a money prize for their drivers in occasion of the Targa Florio. The second provisional position in the Junior classification is in Simone Campedelli's hands on the official Citroen DS3 R3 belonging to Team Italia; third position for Andrea Carella on Renault New Clio R3.
As regarding the Production tricolored championship, the first place is occupied by Fabio Ginafico on Mitsubishi EVO X, after the retirement due to an offroad excursion of Maurizio Angrisani on the EVO X during stage 4.
Tomorrow, Saturday 4 June, the conclusive day 2 of the 95th Targa Florio will start at 6.00 AM (local time, GMT+2) and will be run on five stages: Cefalù (19,30 Km) starting at 7.02 and 10.35; Lascari (13,50 Km) at 7.52 and 14.49; Gibilmanna (Km 1,60) at 14.00 (live coverage on RAI Sport2 from 13.30).
The four service parks scheduled at the Targa Florio Village will be at 6.00, 9.18, 12.35 and 16.05.
The finish line is set for 16.30 in Termini Imerese.
