Andrea Zivian and Nicola Arena returned to the top of the Historic Rally podium for Italy by snaring the Gravel class gold, while Great Britain sits first in the Overall category.
Having won when Historic Rally made its FIA Motorsport Games debut in 2022, “Zippo” and Arena were back with a medal to defend.
The pair leaned on their four-wheel-drive 1981 Audi quattro to carve a slim 10s lead ahead of Great Britain’s Ernie / Anna Graham over the three morning stages.
Aboard a Ford Escort RS, the Britons then won the last of the dirt stages on Friday afternoon to enter the Super Special Stage at Circuit Ricardo Tormo with an incredibly tight 0.3s lead.
But Team Italy overcame overshooting a turn to power round the 4.1-kilometre route in 3:10.6s to pip Great Britain to Historic Rally Gravel gold by just 2.1s.
Czechia’s Vojtěch Štajf / Veronika Havelková claimed the bronze in a 1972 Opel Ascona.
Great Britain is represented by Ben Mellors and Alex Lee in the Historic Rally Overall contest.
The Toyota Celica pair finished second to Italy in the evening’s Super Special Stage but sit first in the combined times, while Kjell / Peter Fransson are third for Team Sweden aboard their Renault Alpine A310.
Historic Rally continues with six Tarmac and another Super Special Stage tomorrow, with the top three in the Overall times progressing to the Medals Stage showdown on Sunday.
The first of the Tarmac stages is scheduled for 09:43 local time on Saturday.