Campedelli had promised a committed approach to the championship’s fourth and opening all-asphalt round and he delivered on his word.
The Italian had been challenging for a podium position on the first morning before he was set back by a notional time for the first pass Santa Lucía after Simon Wagner went off and blocked the stage.
Campedelli was given a time of 9min 20sec - 11.6sec slower than that of early leader Luis Monzón - and dropped out of the sharp-end battle.
An off-road excursion later in the day only added to his frustrations, although he and co-driver Tania Canton did eventually haul themselves back up the leaderboard to finish fifth.
“I’ve always really liked this rally, and on Friday we were in a tight battle for the podium,” Campedelli told FIAERC.com. “It’s not a secret that we arrived here with the plan also to try and fight for victory, if we could.
“On Saturday, I made a small mistake. I went a bit too long into a sharp left corner and from that point we had to step back and adjust our rally to another target.
“Unfortunately we discovered that the organisers applied us a notional time for the third stage and I think that it was quite an unfair one. We fought all day long and we showed that we had been quicker than the two guys in front of us, but because of this we lost two or three positions. It’s quite sad,” he added.
“Last year we had a penalty for touching a chicane and this time a notional time like this,” he continued. “Maybe I am too kind with this land because I’ve always said that I like this rally, but okay, my thought doesn’t change anyway because the stages were fantastic.”
Campedelli now holds sixth in the championship standings, 38 points adrift of his team-mate and leader Efrén Llarena.
He remained positive despite the frustrations and praised MRF’s asphalt rubber, which carried him to a stage win Valsequillo.
“We started from another point last year, and we have worked a lot with the tyres technicians and the whole of MRF tyres to achieve these kinds of goals.
“When you are finally able to make it here, it’s proof that the whole team has worked really well together. It’s really great.”
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