The 47th Rally of Friuli – Oriental Alps, penultimate round of the Italian Rally Championship organized by Scuderia Friuli and Automobile Club of Udine will begin tomorrow with the stage in Udine.
With the title already won for the sixth time by Paolo Andreucci and his navigator Anna Andreussi, the attention will be shifted to the fight for the second and third place as well as on the Italian Rally Junior and Production Championships.
The podium in the Italian tricolored will be battled out by three drivers leveled at 63 points in the classification: the driver from Pordenone Luca Rossetti, on Abarth Grande Punto, the extraordinary driver from Vicenza Gianfranco Cunico, Peugeot 207 S2000, and the Veronese Umberto Scandola on Ford Fiesta S2000. The three will also fight for the win in the rally trying to stop the series of victories of the Peugeot driven by Andreucci winner so far of all the rounds. Alessandro Perico, Peugeot 207 S2000, will also try to fit in the fight as he has been author of great races in the season.
The duel in the Italian Rally Junior will see Renault agains Citroen with their best and very young drivers, the Sicilian Andrea Nucita and Simone Campedelli. Favourite for the win will also be Marco Signor and Andrea Carella, both on Renault Clio R3T.
The race could also be decisive for the Italian Production Championship. In this case, two drivers will be battling for the title. From the one side, Fabio Gianfico and from the other Maurizio Angrisani both on Mitsubishi are in fact just 12 points apart.
Udine's race will be important for the single-brand trophies Peugeot 207 Top and Renault Clio 3T Top.
The starting flag will be waved tomorrow, Thursday September 1st in Udine at 19.30 (local time, GMT+2) with drivers that 4' afterwards will have to face the spectacle-stage in Primo Maggio square proceeding the night repacking in Cividale at 21.10.
Friday 2 September day two will start from Cividale at 11.30 , followed by the new stage of “Valle di Soffumbergo” for which the direction has been inverted. The “Subit” stage will follow with start in Forame, that is partially new and will have a length of 15Km. The following “Erbezzo” stage will be as in 2010 and the lap will be repeated another time; end of the day scheduled for 18.45 in Cividale del Friuli.
Day three will start at 9.15 on Saturday from Cividale with the only variant of the “Canebola” stage that will start from Plan dal Jof, with the famous descent leading to Canal di Grivò, featuring the famous hairpin Bocchetta Sant'Antonio. The other two stages will be "Trivio" and "Tribil" with driver lapping twice on all the stages apart from the "Città di Cividale del Friuli". The finish line will be in Udine at 15.30 for historic cars and at 18.00 “modern” cars in the fascinating setting of Libertà square where the Italian anthem by the Fanfara of Brigata Alpina Julia will welcome the drivers.
