Raffaele Pinto

Raffaele “Lele” Pinto (Casnate con Bernate, 13 April 1945 – Cecina, 8 December 2020) was an Italian rally driver. After joining the works Fiat team in the early 1970s, he became European Rally Champion in 1972 with the Fiat 124 and was part of the first generation of drivers to compete in the newly created World Rally Championship.

Pinto contested 19 WRC events, scored three podiums and achieved one outright victory, the 1974 Rally de Portugal in a Fiat 124 Abarth Rallye. He later drove for Lancia, mainly with the Stratos HF. The 1978 Rally Sanremo was his final World Rally Championship appearance, although he continued competing afterwards and won the 1979 Rally di Monza in a Ferrari 308 GTB. He died in Cecina in 2020 at the age of 75.