Kris Meeke clinched the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge title with a victory for Peugeot UK on the Rally Sanremo.
The Briton's championship lead over Skoda rival Jan Kopecky had shrunk to just one point going into the rally after the Czech driver's recent surge.
See the high-res Kris Meeke IRC 2009 picture gallery
But Kopecky crashed early in Italy, which left the door open for Meeke to climb through the field and take the victory and then title.
Kopecky had led after SS1 on Friday night, but an error on the next stage left him with rally-ending damage to his Skoda Fabia.
Rossetti took second ahead of Renato Travaglia's Island Peugeot, with Andreucci finishing sixth behind factory Peugeot pair Nicolas Vouilloz and Freddy Loix - the top six all within half a minute at the end of the close-fought event.
Classified results:
1. Kris Meeke Peugeot 2h20m03.5s2. Luca Rossetti Abarth +15.7s3. Renato Travaglia Peugeot +16.5s4. Nicolas Vouilloz Peugeot +16.9s5. Freddy Loix Peugeot +19.8s6. Paolo Andreucci Peugeot +28.1s7. Luca Cantamessa Peugeot +1m28.6s8. Juho Hanninen Skoda +1m41.8s9. Piero Longhi Skoda +2m08.2s10. Alessandro Perico Peugeot +2m26.2s
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Re: Kris Meeke wins IRC title
congratulations to the irc for putting on such a great rally challenge. its much better than the wrc, with peugeot, skoda, fiat and a few others all competing with sensible budgets and performance machinery. the wrc is dead and really seems to have lost its way. well done to kris meeke and paul nagle. dont forget the co-drivers. www.KOOOLcr.com