European Rally Championship The Fiat Grande Punto driven by Basso and Dotta consolidates its lead in the championship

Today - Sunday 11 June - saw the end of the 63rd Polish Rally, third event in the European Rally Championship, in Mikolajki (north of Warsaw). The official Fiat Grande Punto car driven by Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta finished the difficult Polish event by taking fourth place overall, thus holding onto their leadership of the continental series and increasing their lead over their direct rivals. The 15 points they were awarded will put Basso 10 points ahead of Andreucci (Fiat Grande Punto) and Kuzaj (Subaru). The winners’ podium in Poland was occupied by Kuzaj (Subaru, in 2h15'23.6"), Svedlund (Subaru, +51.5") and Solowow (Mitsubishi, + 1'25.6").

For Basso and Dotta, the Polish Rally represented their debut with the Grande Punto on dirt tracks: although this was the first time they had tackled the 12 special trials in the rally, the official Fiat team achieved an outstanding result and focused on their aim of accumulating valuable points toward the championship. Yet again, the Grande Punto revealed true reliability without any technical problems at the end of nearly 700 kilometres of racing and 12 special trials. Only one puncture to the rear wheel during the special trials week held Basso and Dotta back by approximately 1 minute. In all the other “specials”, Basso’s Grande Punto managed to remain in the first five overall places, also achieving the second best time in the 12^th trial and the third in the 4th trial during the first stage.

Another noteworthy achievement was the outstanding performance of the Fiat Punto Super 1600 driven by Frycz-Boba, the official team fielded by Fiat Poland, which won first position in its category ahead of the Suzuki driven by Kosciuszko-Baran and 12^th place overall.

The next European Rally Championship event is scheduled for 24-25 June with the Ypres Rally (Belgium).

“We achieved our aim“, reported Giandomenico Basso at the end of the race, “which was to bring home valuable points for the championship. We also managed to close the race with an excellent fourth place in a race that was difficult for us because we were facing the strongest national drivers who are very familiar with this strange type of fast, slippery road. It was also the first time we had raced over dirt tracks with the Grande Punto, which has already proved itself very fast over asphalt”.

Turin, 11 June 2006

Polish Rally final ranking

1. Kuzaj-Szczepaniak (Subaru) in 2h15'23.6"

2. Svedlund-Nilsson (Subaru) + 51.5"

3. Solowow-Baran (Mitsubishi) + 1'25.6"

4. Basso-Dotta (Fiat Grande Punto) + 2'49.1"

5. Dytko-Dytko (Mitsubishi) + 4'04.8"

6. Kuchar-Gerber (Subaru)) + 4'25.9"

European Rally Championship Driver Ranking (after three trials)

1. Basso, 15 points

2. Andreucci andKuzaj, 10

4. Cantamessa, Isik and Svedlund, 8