History 2000s

2000 Rallye Sanremo – Rallye d’Italia (Italy)

Overview Route Results Cars Challenges

Overview

Event Name: 2000 Rallye Sanremo – Rallye d’Italia (Italy)

Date: October 19–22, 2000

Start Location: Sanremo, Italy

Finish Location: Sanremo, Italy

Total Distance: ~1,100 km (estimated full route)

Competitive Stages: 382.79 km

Surface: Asphalt

The 2000 Sanremo Rally played perfectly into Gilles Panizzi’s hands — a tarmac specialist on tight, twisty Ligurian roads. Building off his Corsica momentum, he used the agile Peugeot 206 WRC to full effect, weaving through technical mountain stages and narrow village lanes to take a confident back-to-back asphalt victory for Peugeot.

Route

Colle d’Oggia: Classic uphill stage with hairpin after hairpin — favored torque and late braking.
Bajardo: A complex stage blending open-flowing corners with tight cliff-side sections.
Perinaldo: Narrow and technical — required immaculate precision through chicanes and blind crests.

Sanremo’s unique layout combined high-altitude switchbacks, village sprints, and quick tarmac transitions. Key stages included:

Conditions remained dry and clean across the event, giving Panizzi the confidence to push hard from stage one and control the rally throughout.

🏆 Results

Overall Winner
Gilles Panizzi & Hervé Panizzi · Peugeot 206 WRC
2nd Place
Richard Burns & Robert Reid · Subaru Impreza S6 WRC
3rd Place
François Delecour & Daniel Grataloup · Peugeot 206 WRC

Panizzi controlled the pace with finesse, while Burns again demonstrated growing tarmac skill. Delecour made it two Peugeots on the podium, helping close the manufacturers’ points gap.

Navigation & Challenges

  • Technical Precision: Sanremo’s narrow roads required millimeter-perfect lines — especially on mountain passes with no guardrails.
  • Pacenote Timing: Constant corner transitions and short acceleration bursts meant co-drivers had to be flawlessly in sync.
  • Momentum Over Power: The key to success in Sanremo was rhythm — something Panizzi delivered flawlessly from the first stage.

The Panizzi brothers' win in Sanremo marked a golden stretch for Peugeot’s tarmac campaign and further established Gilles as the undisputed asphalt ace of the early 2000s.

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