Italy’s Andrea Zivian and Nicola Arena powered to a clean sweep of Historic Rally Tarmac stage wins on Saturday morning, while Team Great Britain retains the Overall class lead.
“Zippo” and co-driver Arena are chasing a third gold medal. The pair claimed top spot across Friday’s dedicated Gravel stages to add to their success from 2022, when Historic Rally – for cars homologated between 1971 and 1980 – made its FIA Motorsport Games debut.
Helping the cause aboard their Audi quattro, the Italians were fastest in the Historic Rally Tarmac class across the opening three stages on Saturday as the competition shifted to smooth, asphalt roads. Their advantage in the Tarmac category stands at 1:11.1s.
Currently in second is Great Britain’s dedicated Tarmac line-up of James Potter / Tim Sayer (Ford Escort RS), while Antonio Sainz (brother to two-time World Rally Champion, Carlos Sr) and Carlos Cancela guided their Porsche 911 SC to third.
To decide the Historic Rally Overall contest, Friday’s Gravel results are added to Saturday’s times. Great Britain’s mixed-surface entry of Ben Mellors and Alex Lee (Toyota Celica) retain first on the combined leaderboard, helped by a win in the third Saturday stage.
Team Italy lies second, while Czechia’s Vojtěch Štajf / Veronika Havelková (Opel Ascona) are third.
The crews face three more asphalt stages this afternoon ahead of a Super Special Stage at Circuit Ricardo Tormo to decide the Tarmac medals.
Historic Rally continues this afternoon from 14:23 local time.