72nd Rallye Sanremo, the final judge of the Italian Rally Championship-Sparco

The Western Liguria race marks the curtain rising on the Italian championship, with the overall title still up for grabs between Basso and Crugnola. There are 87 crews at the start of the CIAR Sparco and 39 in the 15th Sanremo Leggenda. That makes a total of 126 crews at the start of the “modern” race.

SANREMO (IM), 16 ottobre – Everything will be decided on the Pian di Nave platform, in front of the Fort of Santa Tecla in Sanremo. The Italian Rally-Sparco Championship will only be decided at the end of the 118.42 km of special stages of the 72nd Rallye Sanremo, an event included in the Calendar of Events of the Tourism Department of the Municipality of Sanremo.

The final race of the CIAR-Sparco 2025 sees 87 crews registered to take part in the Western Liguria race, but all eyes will be on Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai in their Škoda Fabia RS, the first to start and currently leading the Italian Championship; They are being pursued not only on the asphalt but also in the standings by Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Elia Ometto in a Citroën C3, who are separated by a handful of points that can be counted on the fingers of one hand (5.5 points if you count the discards). In the team headquarters, the abacus is being used to make calculations and projections, especially considering that Sanremo has a coefficient of 1.5, which is the maximum possible. The two are the big stars of the recent Sanremo and CIAR events, both chasing their fifth overall title: Giandomenico Basso (first in 2007, 2016, 2019, 2021) and Andrea Crugnola (winner in 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024); the situation is different in the race’s roll of honour, with Basso having climbed to the top step of the podium five times (2024, 2023, 2013, 2012, 2008), while Crugnola is still chasing his first overall victory, even though he has been on the podium three times (2024, 2022, 2021), winning the Promotion category in 2019 and 2018, as well as the Junior category in 2013 and, as a youngster, the Twingo Trophy in 2012 and the Suzuki Cup in 2009

While Giandomenico Basso and Andrea Crugnola are attracting most of the competitive interest, there are many other players who will be looking to show off their skills on the Sanremo stages. Starting with Fabio Andolfi-Marco Menchini, Škoda Fabia RS, and Simone Campedelli Tania Canton, the latter in their first race with the Toyota Yaris GR, who still have a chance to take third place in the overall CIAR-Sparco standings. With the CIAR-Promotion standings decided, it will be up to Marco Signor-Daniele Michi to defend themselves from the attacks of the other competitors in the category to honour their third place in the series, which is their goal for the season. The Italian Two-Wheel Drive Rally Championship has also already decided its top two contenders, but in Sanremo there will still be Gianandrea Pisani, with Nicola Biagi as his co-driver, and Davide Pesavento, co-driven by Alessandro Michelet, competing in the Lancia Ypsilon Trophy, who occupy the top two places in the standings. Simone Di Giovanni and Andrea Colapietro will be chasing points in the Two-Wheel Drive category in their Peugeot 208 Rally4, but they will have to watch out for attacks from Giorgio Cogni and Daiana Darderi in their Lancia Ypsilon Rally4, the only rivals still capable of threatening their third place in the standings. All six of the top finishers in the Italian Junior Championship will be present, all driving Renault Clio RS Line Rally5 cars, starting with Giacomo Marchioro-Daniele Conti, who have a mere three-point lead over Sebastian Dalla Piccola-Fabio Andrian and eight points over Mattia Ricciu-Giovani Maria Mazzone and Matteo Greco-Edoardo Brovelli. Finally, the Under-25 classification in Sanremo will see a battle between Finland’s Benjamin Korhola, alongside Kristian Juhani Temonen in a Škoda Fabia RS, who will have to contend with the twin car of Davide Porta-Giovanni Manfredini (not forgetting Davide Pesavento, who is still mathematically in contention for second place in the championship won by Roberto Daprà).

Sanremo continues to be a constant attraction for foreign drivers who come to western Liguria to race on those roads that still retain their world championship flavour. Among the 87 entrants, there are ten foreign teams: four Finnish, two German, two French, one Polish and one Mexican.

The long Sanremo 2025 motorsport weekend begins on Wednesday 15 October with the modern rally crews converging on Sanremo for sporting checks and scrutineeringld Railway Station, and the opening of the Service Park at the Old Railway station. After the final sporting checks and scrutineering on Thursday 16 October, the engines will be started on the morning of Saturday 18 October when the CIAR competitors will test their cars on the San Romolo stage, before setting off from the starting platform at Pian di Nave (in front of the Fort of Santa Tecla) and immediately competing in the Porto Sole show stage, which will be broadcast live on television, before completing three more special stages and returning to Piazza Colombo for the overnight regrouping. On Sunday 19 October, the other eight special stages for the CIAR-Sparco crews will take place, before returning to Pian di Nave at 4 p.m. to celebrate all the competitors who will have covered the 481 km of the race, 118.42 km of which are special stages

Everyone is chasing Alessandro Gino in the 15th Sanremo Leggenda Rally. Thirty-nine drivers will compete in the Sanremo Leggenda, the race that will follow the competitors of the 72nd Rallye Sanremo on Sunday 19 October. The first to take the start on the special stages will be Alessandro Gino from Cuneo, co driven by Corrado Bonato in the powerful Citroen C3 WRC, which returns to the western Ligurian stages after twelve years, when it won the Leggenda at the wheel of a Peugeot 207 S2000. He will be challenged by a tough group of eight Škoda Fabias, the first of which will be driven by Flavio Brega from Pavia with Sauro Farnocchia as his co-driver, and two crews from Liguria, the first of which will be Patrizia Sciascia from Sanremo (second overall in 2022 in the last edition of the Leggenda) who will be joined by her usual co-driver Piercarlo Capolongo. Immediately behind them will be Michele Guastavino and Laura Bottini from Genoa, overall winners of the Leggenda in 2019.La leggenda del Sanremo insegue la gara tricolore con il 15° Sanremo Leggenda.

The crews participating in the rally included in the Zone-2 Rally Cup, the 15th Sanremo Leggenda, must undergo sporting checks (Forte di Santa Tecla) on Wednesday 15 October from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm and on Thursday 16 October from 7:30 am to 9:30 am. Scrutineering Old Railway Station at the Service Park will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Friday and from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Saturday 18, followed by the Shake Down from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in San Romolo. The race will start on Saturday 18 October at 6.30 pm to tackle the two special stages the Carpasio-Ville San Pietro (14.72 km at 7.29 pm) and Cesio-Caravonica (6.36 km at 8.23 pm) before returning to Piazza Colombo at 9.58 pm for the overnight regrouping. On Sunday 19 October, the race will restart from Piazza Colombo at 9.40 a.m. for two passes on the Vignai (14.23 km at 11.01 a.m. and 3.51 p.m.) and Ghimbegna-San Romolo (10.51 km at 11.35 a.m. and 4.25 p.m.) special stages interspersed with a regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 1.05 p.m. and a Service Park at the Old Station, before returning to Pian di Nave at 6.05 p.m. for the awards ceremony after the competitors have covered 297.14 km, 70.56 of which are divided into six special stages.