Peugeot Italy driver Luca Rossetti has maintained his 100% success rate on the IRC by winning the Vodafone Rally de Portugal. This marks Rossetti’s fourth victory on thPe IRC (following on from Ypres and Sanremo in 2007, as well as Istanbul this year) from four participations and makes the Italian the most successful driver in the history of the IRC series so far.

Rossetti was in the thick of an intense fight for the lead with Peugeot Belgium driver Nicolas Vouilloz throughout most of the rally, ending Saturday with an advantage of just 2.4 seconds over his rival. On Sunday morning, Vouilloz chose slightly softer tyres than Rossetti and started to drop behind – but it was a puncture, which he was forced to stop and change, that dropped the Frenchman definitively out of contention for the win.

This meant that the provisional second place went briefly to Belgian star Francois Duval, who climbed his way up the order despite the handicap of starting first on the road on Friday.

However, the Belgian’s challenge for the lead was halted by a wheel bearing failure on SS10. Duval’s retirement ensured that Rossetti was able to safeguard his advantage over secondplaced Jan Kopecky for the final three stages, who now moves up to third place overall in the standings. The 1994 World Rally Champion Didier Auriol held third overall in Portugal, but he retired his Grande Punto on the following stage – SS11 – with suspension failure.

In the end Vouilloz claimed the final podium place, to consolidate his second place in the standings. Fourth place was decided on the final stage of the rally, after a spectacular battle between Giandomenico Basso’s Abarth and Finn Juho Hanninen in a Mitsubishi. In the end, Basso claimed the advantage by just 2.5s and opened his points-scoring account for the season.

There were several high-profile retirements, including Anton Alen – who was out on the first stage with a clutch problem on his Abarth – and Peugeot Belgium’s Freddy Loix, who retired after picking up three punctures yesterday when he had only two spare wheels on board.

Marco Cavigioli won the IRC 2WD Cup in a Fiat Grande Punto diesel, finishing 15th in the IRC rankings, to claim the joint lead of the series and re-inforce Fiat’s lead of the IRC 2WD manufacturers’ rankings.

Rossetti, who now enjoys a 16-point overall lead of the championship, commented: “It’s been a fantastic battle from the beginning, and I’m overjoyed to win my fourth IRC rally. Just as was the case in Turkey at the start of the season, I really didn’t expect this. To be competing against such a high-quality field of drivers, with even Marcus Gronholm as the zero car, was a very big honour for me and my co-driver.”