The third round of the Italian Rally Championship, Rally Mille Miglia, hosted in the Northern area of Brescia, has been theatre also for the first round of the European Rally Championship with maximum coefficient and the high level of competition of the Italian drivers was further increased by the join of some of the top class European teams, like the Martinican axe Simon Jean Joseph, at the wheel of the works Renault Clio Super1600 supported by team Oreca, and the Belgian Bruno Thiry, being supported by Kronos Racing using a Citroen Saxo Super1600 brought by Vieffecorse. The Belgian driver was forced to use the older Saxo, because the Citroen C2 Super1600 has not been readied for homologation and for use of the Italian Rally Mille Miglia.

The event has its debut early on Thursday night, when the crews contested in the spectators super stage "Città di Desenzano", long only 2,85 km. Such short track was enough for Giandomenico Basso to get the leadership, tying the same time of local idol Andrea Dallavilla. Since the first track Basso, driving the works N Technology Fiat Punto Abarth rented to Trico Motor Sport, had not left the lead up to the Saturday night's podium.
The Fiat driver from Cavaso sul Tomba built up his wider gap over the challengers during the first leg with solid performance determined by absolute lack of errors. Almost of the rest of the top crews incurred in common issues, typical of the attempt of pacing the leader. Paolo Andreucci has his misfortunes on SS2, when he spun out and had scarse effectiveness from the Pirelli tyres, whilst upper class Peugeot 306 Maxi's Luca Pedersoli had a puncture on SS6, which made him slid at 2 minutes from the provisional leader. Different issue for Jean Joseph and Boyere's Renault Clio, whose bonnet suddenly opened and crashed on the windscreen and made them lost about 50 seconds and the chance to fight for the victory in the second leg. The first leg ended with Basso at the lead with Piero Longhi's Subaru Impreza at 1'18", and Paolo Andreucci's Fiat Punto at 1'22".

The second leg started with the retirement of Bruno Thiry, on the epic Cavallino stage, where he broke a suspension part after hitting a kerb and damaged a bit the left side of his Saxo. On Saturday Giandomenico Basso, codriven with Mitia Dotta, kept a conservative drive, with an eye on the provisional leaderboard, where the main challengers didn't attach too much. In fact Luca Pedersoli covered about 1'30" of the delay suffered on Friday with the five stage victories over a total of six stages, although powered by a kit car, a Peugeot 306 Maxi, which cannot be used to get points for the Italian Championship and European one. Positive note also for Renato Travaglia on the fifteenth stage, where he set the best scratch with the Racing Lions' Peugeot 206 Super1600.

The victory of Basso let him move up dramatically in the Italian Championship and the European. Fiat men are considering bringing a car for him also in other rounds of the European Championship during the summer, maybe Rally Vinho Madeira or Antibes Rally. Second position went to Paolo Andreucci, with Procar's Fiat Punto, and let him get 15 points, which are worthly for the first position of the national series.
The eighth position for Stefano Bizzarri, with a Procar's Punto, was enough to winning the Trofeo Fiat Punto Abarth, heading Alessandro Bettega (12th), Matteo Gamba (14th) and the Welsh Leon Pesticcio (20th). Bizzarri moved up also in the current classification of the Fiat trophy, whilst Matteo Gamba kept the topmost position in the Under 27 special classification.

Rally Mille Miglia (final results)

1  BASSO / DOTTA            FIAT PUNTO            3h31'00"1
2  PEDERSOLI / VERNUCCIO    PEUGEOT MAXI         at 00'34"8
3  ANDREUCCI / ANDREUSSI    FIAT PUNTO           at 01'02"0
4  LONGHI / FAPPANI         SUBARU IMPREZA STI   at 01'44"1
5  JEAN-JOSEPH / BOYERE     RENAULT CLIO         at 02'04"1
6  CANTAMESSA / CAPOLONGO   MITSUBISHI LANCER    at 02'37"6
7  ROSSETTI / DE LUIS       CITROEN SAXO         at 02'41"5
8  BIZZARRI / BOSI          FIAT PUNTO           at 04'01"4
9  DALLAVILLA / CANTON      RENAULT CLIO         at 04'08"3
10 TRAVAGLIA / ZANELLA      PEUGEOT 206          at 04'23"2
11 DATI / MERLIN            MITSUBISHI EVO VII   at 04'23"5
12 BETTEGA / SCATTOLIN      FIAT PUNTO           at 05'05"8
13 SOTTILE / NARI           SUBARU IMPREZA       at 05'31"6
14 GAMBA / GUGLIELMINI      FIAT PUNTO           at 05'49"4
15 OLDRATI / GRANAI         PEUGEOT MAXI         at 08'11"8
16 CUNICO / PIROLLO         RENAULT CLIO         at 08'12"0
17 JANDIK / CHRASTECKY      MITSUBISHI EVO VII   at 10'20"0
18 RIGO / GRASSI            RENAULT CLIO         at 11'17"2
19 CRISTOFORETTI / CARRARA  RENAULT CLIO         at 13'42"0
20 PESTICCIO / STURLA       FIAT PUNTO           at 16'24"2 

Italian Championship (after 3rd round/11)

1 Paolo Andreucci      Fiat Punto Abarth     43 Points
2 Andrea Navarra       Subaru Impreza Sti    28 Points
- Giandomenico Basso   Fiat Punto Abarth     28 Points
4 Piero Longhi         Subaru Sti            27 Points
5 Andrea Dallavilla    Renault Clio          19 Points
6 Luca Rossetti        Citroen Saxo          18 Points
7 Alex Fiorio          Subaru Impreza        15 Points
9 Emanuele Dati        Mitsubishi Lancer     14 Points
- Luca Cantamessa      Mitsubishi Lancer     14 Points
10 Walter Eugeni       Subaru Impreza Sti    10 Points
11 Renato Travaglia    Peugeot 206            9 Points