Giandomenico Basso dominated day one of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge's Sanremo event. The Italian was fastest on three of Friday's four stages, and by the end of the 44-kilometer, after-dark, Ronde test he had built a lead of 25.6 seconds.
Jan Kopecky holds second place in the factory Skoda, feeling that Basso's turbocharged Regional Rally Car Ford had a technical advantage over his normally-aspirated Super 2000 Fabia. Kopecky's former champion teammate Juho Hanninen crashed out on Ronde.
Paolo Andreucci held third for a while, before easing off to prioritise his title hopes in the Italian series - for which Sanremo also counts - after two mistakes on the first two stages ruled out his rival Umberto Scandola.
Andreucci is now sixth, behind Alessandro Perico, Stefano Albertini and series returnee Craig Breen.