The 45th Casentino International Rally belongs to Bostjan Avbelj

Arezzo, July 13, 2025 – Bostjan Avbelj won the 45th Rally Internazionale Casentino, an event that took place in the province of Arezzo between Friday and Saturday . The race, organized by Scuderia Etruria SCRL and part of the International Rally Cup and Mitropa Rally Cup, saw the Slovenian driver, already winner of the 2022 edition, prevail for the second time in his career. At the wheel of the Skoda Fabia RS fielded by the MS Munaretto team, Bostjan Avbelj delivered an aggressive performance, highlighted by winning six consecutive special stages on Saturday. He shared this result with co-driver Damijan Andrejka, securing the lead in the second special stage. Stefano Albertini finished on top in the first timed stage of the program—the spectacular stage scheduled in Bibbiena on Friday evening. The driver from Brescia, partnered by Manuel Fenoli, finished second in the PA Racing Skoda Fabia RS, just six tenths of a second ahead of third-placed Andrea Nucita, who shared the Citroën C3 Rally2 with Fabiano Cipriani, and who was slowed down by a less than optimal setup at the start of Saturday.

Avbelj imposed a resounding victory on his rivals, with the final result seeing him prevail by more than forty seconds over his nearest rival, a result validated on the thirty-kilometer Talla special stage, a final act that reaffirmed the Slovenian driver's supremacy. Outside the podium, in fourth place overall, were Marcello Razzini and Gianmaria Marcomini, in a Skoda Fabia RS, a car also shared by sixth-place finishers Nicola Sartor and Manuel Menegon. Filippo Bravi finished sixth, slowed by a technical problem encountered in the opening stage but resolved in the service park at the restart on Saturday. The Friulian driver, in the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 shared with Fabio Grimaldi, preceded local driver Roberto Cresci, seventh overall in the Skoda Fabia RS, which saw Fabio Ciabatti in the right seat. Antonio Rusce and Gabriele Zanni finished eighth, slowed by a less than optimal setup they suffered in the first special stages on Saturday. Two errors, costing a few seconds off the clock, significantly impacted Rudy Michelini's time, finishing ninth with Nicola Angilletta in the right seat of the Skoda Fabia RS. The delay was further compounded by a penalty for a jump start. Rounding out the top ten were Gianluca Tosi and Alessandro Del Barba, in a Skoda Fabia RS, who started with an unsatisfactory setup but improved after optimizing it in the middle of Saturday's race. The Peugeot 208 Rally4 of Giacomo Guglielmini and Andrea Sarti won the two-wheel drive race, finishing fifteenth overall.

In the Mitropa Rally Cup, Hermann Gassner JR and Ursula Gassner, in a Hyundai i20 Rally2, prevailed, followed in second place by Rudiger Dilg and Gunter Brandl, in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo. Hermann Gassner and Karin Thannhauser, in a Renault Clio Rally3, finished third on the podium. Rino Muradore and Cristina Delbello celebrated victory in the Rally Internazionale Casentino Storico, in a Ford Escort RS Group 2, with which they also prevailed in the Mitropa Rally Cup, followed by Alois NothDurfter and Thomas Zuppardi, in a Ford Sierra Cosworth. The Ford Sierra Cosworth of Alessandro Pulz and Michele Ceretti took third place in the historic competition. The Rally Internazionale Casentino, in its forty-fifth edition, saw twenty-five foreign crews at the start.