The European Rally Championship returns on 4 – 6 August with the prestigious Rali Vinho da Madeira, and the reigning European Champion, Luca Rossetti, will travel to the Portuguese island to defend his leading position in the European ranking.
This is the fourth time that the Italian driver tackles the tarmac roads of this beautiful rally: last year while he was in second place, he a hit against a rock and lost his bid for first place on the event. After the victory on the last month’s Rally of Bulgaria, the Portuguese event will again see the Italian driver at the wheel of the Abarth Grande Punto Super 2000 with the colours of United Business, with his faithful co-driver Matteo Chiarcossi and determined to fight for the podium.
The opposition is as usual very strong and skilled, and even more numerous due to the presence of the Portuguese drivers starting with Bruno Magalhães and Vítor Sá, both behind the wheel of the Peugeot 207 S2000. “I am very happy to take part again in this amazing race: on the island of the Atlantic during the race days you can breathe a particular air, an air of celebration and passion for rally, there are many fans who follow the event and this always gives an additional push,” said Rossetti. “The Rally Vinho da Madeira is one of the races on asphalt that I like most and this year I hope to obtain the victory which I missed last year because of an accident. The international opposition will not fail and as usual it will be enhanced by the presence of strong local drivers.”
The ceremonial start of the rally is scheduled in Funchal at 16h45 on Thursday 4 August, followed by a Super Special Stage. The race will restart on Friday 5 August with the crews ready to tackle 10 special stages for a total of 148.86km. The Rali Vinho da Madeira will end on Saturday 6 August after a total of 19 special stages and 268.5km against the clock, with the arrival of the first cars planned at 17h10 on Saturday afternoon.
