Rally d'Italia Sardegna Leg 2 Report

Rally d'Italia Sardegna - Leg two
20 May 2006

Starters
75 of the original 79 crews started Leg two. 28 of those were competing under FIA restart regulations.

Route
Leg two featured a further two loops of three stages to the south of Olbia. The route was a combination of stages used in 2004 and 2005 and covered 137.96 competitive kilometres.

Weather
Temperatures ranged from 18ºC to 33ºC. No rain fell.

Retirements
Gronholm, H. Solberg, Katajamaki, Galli

SWRT summary
Chris Atkinson continues to lead the Subaru World Rally Team’s challenge on the second day of Rally d’Italia Sardegna. With six more stages to run tomorrow Chris holds fifth place overnight. After retiring from the first day of the competition, Petter Solberg restarted with the primary objective of testing set-ups for the forthcoming gravel rallies. The Norwegian demonstrated the performance potential of the Subaru Impreza WRC2006 by setting four top three stage times and winning SS10 outright.

SS7: 0930 Loelle 1 (25.20km)
The narrow 25km Loelle pass south west of Olbia opened Leg two of Rally d’Italia Sardegna. Overnight leader Marcus Gronholm consolidated his advantage by collecting the first win of the day, just over a second quicker than Sébastien Loeb. Subaru’s Petter Solberg, who had restarted after his retirement on Leg one, posted the third best time, over 11secs quicker than next fastest Mikko Hirvonen. Italian Gigi Galli was fifth quickest to jump into fifth overall ahead of young Spaniard Dani Sordo. Skoda driver Harri Rovanpera restarted following his Leg one retirement.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 15:30.8

Jussi Välimäki - Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05

SS8: 1028 Monte Lerno 1 (31.20km)
The longest stage of the rally provided a dramatic twist as rally leader Marcus Gronholm hit a rock 23km from the start, lost engine oil pressure and retired. Loeb inherited the lead, despite hitting exactly the same rock as Gronholm. Several other drivers also experienced problems through the pass, including Kosti Katajamaki, who hit a stone halfway through and Dani Sordo who reported four punctured tyres. The second test of the Leg included a spectacular jump 21km from the start which launched cars metres into the air. Subaru’s Chris Atkinson was one of the highest fliers but a violent nose heavy landing crushed the front end and air-intake of his Impreza. He continued with reduced engine power for the rest of the stage and lost 39secs to stage winner Loeb.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 20:32.8

Gianluigi "Gigi" Galli - Pirelli Peugeot 307 WRC

SS9: 1113 Su Filigosu 1 (12.28km)
Chris Atkinson and co-driver Glenn Macneall made repairs on the road section to SS9 and unblocked their car’s front end. The Australian duo went on to finish the stage in the sixth quickest time, 13secs from stage winner Loeb. Second overall Hirvonen hit a bank close to the end of the speed test and damaged his right rear suspension, while Henning Solberg retired 300m when he ran into a tree. Henning’s retirement allowed Galli into third and Sordo into fourth. Petter Solberg continued his objective of testing set-ups for forthcoming rallies and had a clean run through the pass to record the third quickest time.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 8:17.8

SS10: 1440 Loelle 2 (25.20km)
After a 30 minute service halt in Olbia crews headed south for a repeat of the three morning stages. Petter Solberg had an excellent start to the afternoon as he recorded his first win of the event with a time over 17secs quicker than his earlier run. Team-mate Chris Atkinson however collected two minutes 20secs of penalty time as he checked out of the midday service 14 minutes late. Subaru technicians had worked hard on his car to repair the front end damaged in SS8. In the process, several critical steering components were replaced and the crew used more than their allotted 30 minutes to make sure the car was absolutely safe before it left. Chris dropped to eighth as a result of the delay. Gigi Galli was second fastest through the stage to hold onto third position from Sordo while rally leader Loeb was fourth to extend his advantage over Hirvonen to nearly two minutes. Finnish driver Kosti Katajamaki’s difficult rally came to a premature end when he rolled his Ford Focus early in the stage and retired.
Fastest Time: Solberg (Subaru) 15:22.3

SS11: 1538 Monte Lerno 2 (31.20km)
Reigning world champion Sébastien Loeb took his third stage win of the day through the Monte Lerno test. Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo was second fastest, crucially six seconds quicker than Galli in the fight for the final podium position. The Spaniard’s time closed the gap to under a second. Subaru’s Chris Atkinson began to climb back up the leaderboard after his earlier delays and moved into seventh overall after setting the fifth quickest time.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 20:12.7

SS12: 1623 Su Filigosu 2 (12.28km)
Leg two concluded with the narrow, tree-lined Su Filigosu speed test. There were two changes in the top ten as Sordo finally took third position with the third fastest time and Atkinson moved into sixth. Chris’ Subaru team-mate Petter Solberg completed a consistent afternoon performance with the fourth quickest time. Loeb extended his lead to two minutes 17secs with one day of competition remaining. There was disappointment for Gigi Galli after the end of the stage. The Italian stopped by the side of the road when his Peugeot lost all its oil and the radiator lost water. Unable to make it back to service, Galli retired from the Leg.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 8:06.1

Overall Leaderboard after Leg 2

Pos.	Driver	Vehicle	Time
1	Loeb / Elena	CITROEN Xsara WRC	03:02:26.0
2	Hirvonen / Lehtinen	FORD Focus RS WRC	+02:17.0
3	Sordo / Marti	CITROEN Xsara WRC	+02:56.0
4	Pons / Del barrio	CITROEN Xsara WRC	+04:27.1
5	Atkinson / Macneall	SUBARU Impreza WRC	+05:56.7
6	Välimäki / Kalliolepo	MITSUBISHI Lancer WRC	+06:01.6
7	Sohlberg / Tuominen	SUBARU Impreza WRC	+06:29.1
8	Solberg / Mills	SUBARU Impreza WRC	+06:57.8
9	Stohl / Minor	PEUGEOT 307 WRC	+07:12.3
10	Duval / Pivato	SKODA Fabia WRC	+08.20.7