SHAKEDOWN OF THE 48TH RALLY ITALIA-SARDINIA, MAY 19 – 21
Red Bull Skoda is well-prepared for its first true gravel rally of this year’s WRC season.
In today’s shakedown, all performance checks were satisfactory, both Fabia WRCs are in perfect condition.
Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (FIN) managed position eleven, Andreas Aigner (AUT)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) are classified 15th.
Rally Italia-Sardinia got under way today with the shakedown run on four kilometres of closed-off road near the seaport of Olbia.
Harri Rovanpera, who has completely forgotten about Monday’s testing accident, ran the stage three times and was more than satisfied: “Since we tested very thoroughly prior to this event we could limit our work to performance checks. These gave me the confirmation that we will start in a very well-prepared car tomorrow. My strategy is to be among the top ten after the first leg and in the top six on the final day.”
Andreas Aigner, the young man from Styria, can hardly wait for his first ever gravel event at the wheel of the Fabia WRC: “Everything is going well for me in Sardinia so far, testing and shakedown included. In the car I feel very confident, I like the gravel, and the times show that. I believe I can afford to be optimistic for the rally itself.“
The only team boss at hand in Sardinia is Armin Schwarz, since Raimund Baumschlager is competing in a rally in Austria: “I believe we can look forward to this rally because of our very thorough preparation. It’s important that the entire team makes no crucial error, a good result may be the reward.”
Shakedown times: 1. (tied) Marcus Gronholm (Ford) and Chris Atkinson (Subaru) 2:57.5 minutes each, 3. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) 2:57.8, 4. Henning Solberg (Peugeot) 2:58.6, 5. Petter Solberg (Subaru) 3:00.0, 6. Manfred Stohl (Peugeot) 3:00.3, additionally 11. Harri Rovanpera (Red Bull Skoda) 3:05.5, 15. Andreas Aigner (Red Bull Skoda), and 18. Matthew Wilson (Ford) 3:10.7
No comments:
Post a Comment