Rallye Sanremo, Saturday 18 October: the 72nd Rallye Sanremo gets underway, celebrating the winners of the 40th Historic Rally

Saturday is the highlight of the long weekend in the City of Flowers. It starts early, at 7.30 am, with the Shake Down of the Italian championship, followed by historic and modern cars competing in the Imperia hinterland. The 40th Historic Rally ends its adventure in Pian di Nave at 5.45 pm (followed at 7.59 pm by the Coppa dei Fiori), while the cars of the 72nd Rallye Sanremo enter the regrouping zone in Piazza Colombo at 9.52pm, followed by those of the 15th Sanremo Leggenda.

SANREMO (IM), 17 ottobre – Tomorrow, Saturday 18 October, is the main day of the three-day motor racing event in the City of Flowers, featuring the crews from all four races as well as the drivers from the Ruote nella Storia (Wheels in the History) rally.

The 72nd Rallye Sanremo will start at 7.30 am in San Romolo with the 2.99 km Shake Down, which will keep them busy until 12 noon. The race will officially start from the Service Park at the Old Station in Sanremo at 2.16 pm, immediately tackling the Porto Sole special stage at 2.31 pm, broadcast live on television. This will be followed by regrouping in Piazza Colombo starting at 2.41 pm and the Service Park at 4.03 pm. Leaving the Service Park at 4.33 p.m., the competitors will head inland towards Imperia to tackle the Carpasio-Ville San Pietro (5.28 p.m.), Cesio-Caravonica (6.26 p.m.) and Aurigo-Rezzo (7.05 p.m.) before returning to Sanremo for service at Old Station at the (9 p.m.) and entering the overnight regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 9.52 p.m. The first leg of the 72nd Rallye Sanremo covers 172.31 km, divided into four special stages totalling 41.94 km. The 15th Sanremo Leggenda will follow the cars of the Italian rally, starting with the 2.99 km Shake Down in San Romolo, converging in Piazza Colombo and setting off at 6.30 pm for two of the last sgaes of the day stages, Carpasio-Ville San Pietro (7.29 pm) and Cesio-Caravonica (8.23 pm). The crews will return to Sanremo to enter the night regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 9.58 pm.

For the historic cars, the day will begin at 10:00 a.m., with the surviving crews from the first leg of the 40th Sanremo Historic Rally leaving the Piazza Colombo regrouping area and immediately heading to the service park at Porto Sole before setting off for the Imperia hinterland to compete in the last three stages of the race, starting at 11:36 a.m. on the Carpasio-San Pietro stage, then at 12:30 p.m. on the Cesio-Caravonica stage. At that point, the competitors will descend the Impero valley for regrouping in Calata Anselmi in Imperia/Porto Maurizio (13:15) and the Service Park on the San Lazzaro Pier. After that, the competitors will return to the Imperia hinterland and tackle the last special stage, the Aurigo-Rezzo at 3.24 p.m., before heading to Sanremo to climb onto the podium at Pian di Nave at 5.45 p.m. for the awards ceremony. The second day of the 40th Sanremo Historic Rally covers 195.52 km, of which 39.38 km are divided into three special stages. At the end of the race, competitors will have covered 456.63 km divided into 11 special stages for a total of 123.54 timed km. The Coppa dei Fiori will follow the day of the historic rally competitors, ending their adventure at 7.59 pm in Pian di Nave.