Targa Florio - IRC news before Day 2

IRC ace Kopecky on top in Sicily

Jan Kopecký will restart Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia on Friday morning with a slender lead of 0.6s over defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen.

Kopecký, from Czech Republic, had to wait to be credited with the fastest time through Thursday night’s opening run in Palermo while event officials considered the time recorded by Rashid Al-Ketbi in a similar ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000.

Reports suggested Al-Ketbi missed two hairpins after making a small mistake on the slippery surface in his Skydive Dubai Rally Team entry. As a result, he was denied his first IRC stage win and will start Friday’s stages languishing in 38th position overall but more than capable of making up some of the lost time.

In the battle for IRC Production Cup honours, Subaru Impreza driver Marco Tempestini heads Robert Consani in a Renault Mégane RS by a slender 0.1s. Simone Campedelli leads the IRC 2WD Cup standings by 2.7s.*

Basso to open the road on Friday

Despite dropping time on Thursday night’s first special stage in Palermo, Giandomenico Basso will open the road on section two of day one of Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia.

With crews continuing to run in number order, Basso – in car number one – will go first followed in intervals of two minutes by defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen and event leader Jan Kopecký.

Six-time Targa Florio winner starts fourth with Umberto Scandola fifth and Sepp Wiegand sixth. Matteo Gamba and Simone Campedelli complete the top eight starters respectively with Alessandro Perico ninth and Ivan Ferrarotti 10th. All cars outside of the top will start in one-minute intervals.

Friday’s route consists of two stages repeated three times. The first stage, Targa, goes live at 08:35hrs local time.

Expert view: Jean-Pierre Nicolas

Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia is a new addition to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge schedule for 2012. IRC Manager and former international rally-winning co-driver Jean-Pierre Nicolas offers his expert view.

“This is a very nice rally, using roads that are twisty, with a few hairpins, but generally quite wide as well. You could run two cars alongside each other on most of the stages, for example, and this really gives the spirit of the Targa Florio race circuit, so it is a nice feature. In fact, some of the stages use the same sections of road as the Targa Florio circuit – so as you can imagine, these are stages that you could drive sports prototypes on.

“The surface is changing quite a lot, and then there are some localised bumps, but not all the time – you can have a smooth section of road and then a really bumpy bit, so it’s quite hard to predict.

“The important thing will be to find a good rhythm and I definitely expect the local drivers to have an advantage here, because it is quite specialised. But with the right pacenotes and taking the correct lines you can be quick: it will be very important to drive precisely and neatly to get a good result.”

Andreucci will make victory bid on Targa stage, says Basso

Giandomenico Basso reckons his fellow Italian Paolo Andreucci will win Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia and says the Peugeot driver could attempt an early breakaway on Friday’s opening test.

Basso, who is driving an M-Sport Ford Fiesta RRC for the A-Style Team, identified Friday morning’s 13.60-kilometre ‘Targa’ stage – which includes a section of road that formed part of the 72-kilometre Madonie circuit used for the original Targa Florio road race – as the place where Andreucci could strike.

“Paolo has always been very, very quick on that stage,” pointed out Basso, a four-time event winner in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. “If you look at his times from last year there, he was very fast again. Obviously I’m going to be pushing hard to win myself but if that’s not possible then I would be happy for Paolo to win, as it shows the level that Italian drivers can compete at against some of the best drivers in the world.”

Following Thursday night’s first stage, Andreucci, in a Peugeot Italia 207 Super 2000, is third overall, 0.7s off top spot. Basso, meanwhile, is in sixth position, 2.4s down on first place.