Massimo Biasion
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| Massimo Biasion | |
|---|---|
| World Rally Championship record | |
| Nationality |  Italian |
| Active years | 1980 - 1995 |
| Teams | Lancia, Ford |
| World rallies | 78 |
| Championships | 2 (1988, 1989) |
| Wins | 17 |
| Podium finishes | 40 |
| Stage wins | 372 |
| Points | 768 |
| First world rally | 1980 San Remo Rally |
| First win | 1986 Rally Argentina |
| Last win | 1993 Acropolis Rally |
| Last world rally | 1995 San Remo Rally |
| edit | |
Massimo 'Miki' Biasion (born January 7, 1958) is an Italian rally driver, two times world rally champion.
[edit] Career
Born at Bassano del Grappa, Biasion came to prominence in the early 1980s, winning both the Italian and European Rally Championships in 1983, driving a Lancia 037. He was later drafted in to play a key role for the works Lancia World Rally Championship team in the mid-1980s as the squad sought to regroup after previous star driver Henri Toivonen's fatal crash, and would go on to dominate Group A rallying, taking the world championship in the years 1988 and 1989. At his peak, Biasion was notching victories in almost three quarters of all events he entered. He also was only the second driver to successfully defend his title (after Juha Kankkunen) and the third one to win two titles (after Kankkunen and Walter Röhrl).
Biasion was never to quite achieve that level of success again, and with the arrival of Carlos Sainz Biasion's career began to falter. Later switching to the Ford team, he quietly withdrew from the world scene at the end of the 1995 season.
Throughout his entire career he was co-driven by Tiziano Siviero, although in the Portugal Rally of 1988 Siviero was replaced by Carlo Cassina due to health problems.
Won the World Truck Championship in 1998 and 1999 driving an Iveco.
His presence in the starting grid of the Lisbon-Dakar 2007 has been announced. He will be driving a factory works Fiat Panda Cross.
1977: Sandro Munari (FIA Cup) · 1978: Markku Alén (FIA Cup) · 1979: Björn Waldegård · 1980: Walter Röhrl · 1981: Ari Vatanen · 1982: Walter Röhrl · 1983: Hannu Mikkola · 1984: Stig Blomqvist · 1985: Timo Salonen · 1986-1987: Juha Kankkunen · 1988-1989: Massimo Biasion · 1990: Carlos Sainz · 1991: Juha Kankkunen · 1992: Carlos Sainz · 1993: Juha Kankkunen · 1994: Didier Auriol · 1995: Colin McRae · 1996-1999: Tommi Mäkinen · 2000: Marcus Grönholm · 2001: Richard Burns · 2002: Marcus Grönholm · 2003: Petter Solberg · 2004-2006: Sébastien Loeb
See also: List of drivers · List of records
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