Ligato wins Rally de Bariloche, Madero and Villagra to decide title on the final round

Marcos Ligato (Mitsubishi) on his way to winning the 2009 Rally de Bariloche. Photo Credit: Prensa Rally Argentino

09.11.2009 Once again the Argentine Rally Championship came up with another thrilling round, disputed in the southern city of Bariloche and valid for the 9th round, where Tango driver Marcos Ligato clinched the victory in the last kilometers of the race to defeat one of the title contenders, Federico Villagra by only 3,8s.

Championship leader Nicolás Madero, who hoped to seal the title in his home event, started the competition setting the pace with his Mitsubishi Evo X until in the SS8, with two stages to go to the end of the day, was forced to abandon with a broken oil radiator.

Automatically Ligato inherited the race lead and assume the task to help his team-mate in his title ambitions, by preventing Federico Villagra reduce even more the gap in the Championship standings.

As for Villagra, the seventh time champion pushed hard during the whole weekend and managed to drive his Mitsubishi Evo X into second position to shave 11 points over Madero.

Now both driver will face the last showdown of the year with a 5,5-point gap and will decide the title on the Rally of Unquillo, to be held in the province of Córdoba in three weeks time.