Ex-Subaru, Ford and Peugeot WRC driver Markko Martin took the honours at the annual Bettega Memorial Rallysprint event on Sunday, which concluded the Bologna Motor Show.

Martin, who was driving a Pirelli-shod Subaru Impreza WRC car, emerged victorious in the final after beating Toni Gardemeister, who was driving a Peugeot 307 WRC and who will return to the WRC full-time in 2008, having signed a deal today to drive the all-new Suzuki SX4 WRC [see separate story].

Martin went up against a host of drivers from the WRC, including in addition to Gardemeister, Francois Duval and Jan Kopecky, as well as some of the top Italian stars, such as Alessandro Bettega, Simone Campedelli, Dindo Capello and Paolo Ciuffi.

Markko was delighted to take the win, although for Gardemeister the rallysprint was again unlucky and he was runner-up for the third year in succession, having missed out to Gigi Galli in 2005 and 2006.

Mario Isola, Pirelli Competizioni's rally manager, praised Martin's success at the end of the event.

"Markko, who was a Peugeot factory driver in 2005 when the team was supplied by Pirelli, demonstrated this weekend the benefits of a single-tyre formula, which will be the case on next year's World Rally Championship," he stated.

"By putting all the drivers on an equal footing in terms of tyres, this enables close competition fought to the nearest tenth of a second."