Day 1 characterized by a great bagarre, where Giandomenico Basso imposed his rhythm in font of Paolo Andreucci and the finn Juho Hanninen. Tomorrow there will other 6 stages before the podium in Piazza della Vittoria of Brescia.

Giandomenico Basso is the leader of the 36th edition of Rally 1000 Miglia after the first leg. At his debut with the Ford Fiesta “RRC version”, Basso and his co-driver Mitia Dotta – although they have been absent from Italian rallies for more than a year – managed to lead the race since SS 3 – Tremosine-1.

However the tarmac was slippery because of the rain of this morning, Basso and Dotta had a good feeling with the car, ending the contest +37”7 in front of the Italian Champion Paolo Andreucci with the factory Peugeot 207 S2000, clearly in difficulty caused by tyres and slippery tarmac during the stages.

Foto: Massimo Bettiol

Juho Hanninen is in third position, with his factory Skoda Fabia S2000 Czech Team, after he went up from the 14 th position, got yesterday evening in Franciacorta Circuit. Nevertheless he never challenged in this race before, Hanninen managed to make a fast recovery in the overall classification, improving his times stage by stage.

The 4 th position overall is now for the factory Skoda Fabia S2000 driven by Umberto Scandola-Guido D’Amore, although he drove all the with a little cut in a finger caused while he was changing a punctured tyre after SS 5. The medical staff of the race quickly sutured his injury.

At the end of Day 1, Scandola lost 5’’ because a spin. Matteo Gamba (Peugeot 207 S2000) ended the first Leg in 5 th position, while the “European” Luca Betti is in 6 th. Then, in the overall classification there are the young local driver Stefano Albertini on Peugeot 207 S2000 (in 7 th overall at his debut with the car) and Dimitar Iliev (Skoda Fabia S2000), 8 th overall. Albertini is at his debut on this car and he’s conscious of the fact that 1000 Miglia is a hard rally, while Iliev didn’t choice the right tyres this morning at the Service.

In the Renault Twingo Gordini R2 Top Trophy, Michele Tassone is now leading.

Alessandro Perico (Peugeot 207 S2000, accident on SS. 6), Andrea Carella (Renault Twingo EVO, accident on SS. 3), Eddie Sciessere (Renault Clio S1600, two punctures on SS. 3) and Massimiliano Rendina (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, engine failure on SS 5) retired today.

Tomorrow, Saturday 21 April, will be the turn of the “Acquebone” (near the Iseo Lake), the “Colle San Zeno” and the “Irma”, all raced twice. The arrival ceremony will start at 6pm on the podium of Piazza della Vittoria, as usual.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION: 1. BASSO-DOTTA (Ford Fiesta S2000 RRC ) in 1h'28’22”7; 2. ANDREUCCI-ANDREUSSI (Peugeot 207 S2000) +37”7; 3. HANNINEN-MARKKULA (Skoda Fabia S2000) +1’09”2; 4. SCANDOLA-D'AMORE (Skoda Fabia S2000) +1’30”6; 5. GAMBA-INGLESI (Peugeot 207 S2000) +1’52”7; 6. BETTI-BARONE (Peugeot 207 S2000) +2'11.3; 7. ALBERTINI-SCATTOLIN (Peugeot 207 S2000) +2'18”2; 8. ILIEV-YANAKIEV (Skoda Fabia S2000) + 4’00”0; 9. CAMPEDELLI-FAPPANI (Citroen DS3) +’30”6; 10. SOLOWOW-BARAN (Peugeot 207 S2000) +5’01”0.