The 2010 Rallye Sanremo (52º Rallye Sanremo), was the 10th round of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) season and was also a round of the Italian Rally Championship. The eleven stage asphalt rally took place on 23–25 September 2010. The longest stage of the rally, Ronde, was run in darkness. All other stages were run in daylight.
Introduction The rally took place in the province of Imperia, with a total length of , of which were special stages. The rally base was located along the sea front and the old railway station in the heart of the town of Sanremo. A record breaking entry of 30 S2000 cars contested the last all-asphalt IRC event of the year. In addition to the top six runners in the IRC, Proton entered three-time Sanremo winner Gilles Panizzi to partner alongside Niall McShea.
Results Paolo Andreucci became the seventh victor of an IRC rally in 2010, after holding off Juho Hänninen by just 4.4 seconds, with Freddy Loix just edging out Kris Meeke for the final podium position with a stage-winning time on the final stage. Meeke had held the lead of the rally for the first three of the rally's eleven stages before Andreucci claimed the rally lead through the Apricale test. Abarth's Giandomenico Basso led the rally at the end of day one, setting a time some fifteen seconds quicker than his rivals on the night-time Ronde test of 44 kilometres. Basso would eventually slip to seventh in the final classification. Hänninen cut into Andreucci's lead on day two, with the championship leader falling narrowly short of Andreucci, who claimed his first victory in the IRC. Hänninen's second place allowed him to advance two points in the championship standings due to an improvement on dropped scores, while rival Jan Kopecký could do no better than sixth, and thus failing to improve his points total.
Overall Pos. Driver Co-driver Car Time Difference Points 1. Paolo Andreucci Anna Andreussi Peugeot 207 S2000 2:35:32.7 0.0 10 2. Juho Hänninen Mikko Markkula Škoda Fabia S2000 2:35:37.1 4.4 8 3. Freddy Loix Fréderic Miclotte Škoda Fabia S2000 2:36:06.8 34.1 6 4. Kris Meeke Paul Nagle Peugeot 207 S2000 2:36:11.0 38.3 5 5. Luca Rossetti Matteo Chiarcossi Abarth Grande Punto S2000 2:36:53.7 1:21.0 4 6. Jan Kopecký Petr Starý Škoda Fabia S2000 2:37:32.6 1:59.9 3 7. Giandomenico Basso Mitia Dotta Abarth Grande Punto S2000 2:37:50.6 2:17.9 2 8. Thierry Neuville Nicolas Klinger Peugeot 207 S2000 2:38:07.7 2:35.0 1
Special stages DayStageTimeNameLengthWinnerTimeAvg. spd.Rally leaderLeg 1(24 Sept) SS1 13:34 Coldirodi 1 12.92 km Kris Meeke 8:36.6 90.03 km/h Kris Meeke SS2 14:28 Bignone 1 10.62 km Paolo Andreucci 7:05.6 89.83 km/h SS3 16:34 Coldirodi 2 12.92 km Kris Meeke 8:39.5 89.53 km/h SS4 16:56 Apricale 17.53 km Paolo Andreucci 12:51.9 81.76 km/h Paolo Andreucci SS5 17:23 Bignone 2 10.62 km Paolo Andreucci Luca Rossetti 7:10.5 88.81 km/h SS6 22:09 Ronde 44.00 km Giandomenico Basso 31:07.7 84.81 km/h Giandomenico BassoLeg 2(25 Sept) SS7 09:00 Monte Ceppo 29.56 km Juho Hänninen 21:16.2 83.39 km/h Paolo Andreucci SS8 09:45 Teglia 1 29.03 km Luca Rossetti 20:23.5 85.42 km/h SS9 13:00 Bajardo 1.73 km Juho Hänninen 1:17.9 79.95 km/h SS10 13:14 Ceppo Short 22.07 km Paolo Andreucci 15:44.9 84.09 km/h SS11 13:50 Teglia 2 29.03 km Freddy Loix 20:06.3 86.64 km/h
References
External links The official website for the rally The official website of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge