METHOD TO CONTROL A ROAD VEHICLE PROVIDED WITH AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE DURING A GEAR SHIFT

A method to control a road vehicle provided with an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders and with a servo-assisted transmission. The control method comprises the steps of: establishing a minimum spark advance which should not be exceeded in order to avoid the risk of knocking or spontaneous ignitions of the mixture; temporarily reducing, during a gear shift in the servo-assisted transmission, a torque generated by the internal combustion engine by setting an actual spark advance, which is smaller than the minimum spark advance, for one single thermodynamic cycle of each cylinder; and cancelling the injection of fuel into each cylinder in the thermodynamic cycle immediately following the thermodynamic cycle carried out with an actual spark advance smaller than the minimum spark advance.