Basso and Cerrato’s head-to-head contest is the first of two Italian-only quarter-finals with Fabrizio Tabaton and Renato Travaglia set to do battle for a semi-final place tomorrow (Thursday).
Already through to the ERC Greatest Driver semi-finals are Poles Kajetan Kajetanowicz, who defeated Luca Rossetti in Monday’s vote by fans of the FIA European Rally Championship, and Sobiesław Zasada, who got the better of Patrick Snijers in the second quarter-final on Tuesday.
Zasada, 93, and a three-time winner of the ERC crown, received 73 per cent of the votes to signal the end of Belgium’s 1994 European champion’s challenge for ERC Greatest Driver status.
Basso and Cerrato both have two ERC titles to their name with Cerrato winning 25 rounds of the championship to the 20 victories claimed by Basso.
While 72-year-old Cerrato, who was also a multiple Italian champion, has long since retired from competing, Basso was an ERC podium finisher as recently as July when he finished second to Andrea Crugnola on Rally di Roma Capitale. Indeed, the 50-year-old also challenged for a fifth Italian crown in 2023 and shows no sign of slowing down, even finding time in his schedule to coach rising Italian ERC star Alberto Battistolli.
Sixteen drivers were originally selected for the ERC Greatest Driver vote with FIAERC.com taking a data-based approach to pick out 12 drivers who have won the coveted European Rally Championship at least two times. Four wildcards, based on their impact during a certain ERC era, were also selected. The ERC Greatest Driver, according to your votes, will be revealed on 1 December.
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