Neste Rally Finland Leg 1

Neste Rally Finland Leg 1
10th Round FIA WRC 2006
18 August 2006







The first full leg of this year's Neste Oil Rally Finland saw Marcus Gronholm return to parc ferme as overall leader, as expected. While many expected championship leader Sebastien Loeb to be close to Gronholm, what was unexpected was just how close; after almost 150 kilometres of competition, the Frenchman holds second place just 12 seconds behind Gronholm. Fellow BP-Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen is a fine third, a further 31.5seconds back.



Heavy overnight rain continued into the first stage of the day and as a result, running first on the road wasn't as much of a disadvantage as it usually is on the fast and flowing gravel tracks.

Loeb and Gronholm set about each other from the first, superspecial stage and no-one else set a fastest time on any of the nine stages that made up the first leg of the event. As the crews headed for the second running of the Killeri superspecial stage, they each had four wins apiece, with Gronholm taking honours on the second spectator superspecial.

Gronholm flew on the first three stages of the day, to build an 11sec cushion to team-mate Mikko Hirvonen as the crews returned to service for the first time. Hirvonen was clearly enjoying the event, running in his neighbourhood while Petter Solberg was third, in the Subaru Impreza which was clearly living up to his and the team's expectations of improved pace. Loeb was fourth and still in touch, despite admitting to taking longer to wake up than Gronholm had over the first loop.



However, things would change on the first run though the 36km Vellipohja stage. The rain began to fall almost as soon as Loeb set off, running first on the road, and followed him through the stage. He had the best of the conditions and behind him, Gronholm dropped 2.5 second, not enough to unduly worry him. However, both Hirvonen and Solberg dropped time, Solberg on tyres too soft for the conditions and Hirvonen feeling he was overdriving the car. The result was Loeb leap-frogging both Hirvonen and Solberg to claim second by the end of the stage.

And that's how it stayed for the top four for the remainder of the day, with the gaps between them remaining largely unchanged until the last forest stage, when Hirvonen's engine stalled on the start line and Solberg closed the gap to less than ten seconds.



Behind them, Chris Atkinson was enjoying as much of a return to form as Solberg, despite also taking too soft a tyre on the long stage. However, an overheating engine cost him time on the second run through the long stage and he dropped one position, behind Henning Solberg in the Peugeot 307. Atkinson put in consistently quick times all day, a further demonstration of the gains made by the Subaru team.



Dani Sordo, who put in such an impressive performance the weekend before in Germany, was having a tougher time in Finland. He was finding it difficult to adapt to the extremely slippery conditions and it didn't help when his windscreen wipers failed on the third stage of the day in heavy rain. He still went on to finish the first leg in seventh place. Xevi Pons, in the third Citroen Xsara was another driver not feeling at home on an event which demands experience in the best conditions, let alone when it is as slippery as today and he ends the leg in 12th.



Gigi Galli and Daniel Carlsson began the day looking like they were going to have a repeat of the battle they enjoyed in Sweden and were never more than fractions of a second apart over the first three stages. However, Galli had a big spin on the first of the long stages and when he came to rest, wasn't sure which direction he should be heading in and lost time as a result. He got the feeling back for the following stages though, although he was now playing catch-up. Carlsson, on the other hand, didn't seem happy with the handling of his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC and eventually, went off the road in the penultimate stage and lost a wheel, handing Galli eighth place.


(photo: MMSP)

Jussi Valimaki was another driver using the Mitsubishi this weekend and was settling in well. However, he landed after some of the early jumps too hard and ended up with a stiff neck and his co-driver a sore back, reminiscent of last year's event. However, he ends the first leg in ninth just ahead of fellow Finn, Janne Tuohino in another Xsara WRC. He complained of intercom failure all day and had gone through two sets of helmets by the end of the day trying to resolve the problem.


(story: wrc.com / photos: wrc.com)