11th Round FIA WRC 2006
1 September 2006
Overall Leaderboard after SS10
The first day of Rally Japan had a familiar feel to it. It started wet and Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb made the early running, with Mikko Hirvonen right behind them and Petter Solberg looking strong until he suffered mechanical problems. Just like in Finland, two weeks ago. Gronholm and Loeb shared all the stage wins between them, with the Finn taking six and the Frenchman, eight, as the crews headed for the pair of superspecial stages to round off the day. Just like Finland, Gronholm leads Loeb by a slender 10.5sec margin at the end of the first leg, with Hirvonen third, 1min2.1sec behind Loeb.
Sebastien Loeb
Loeb initially thought that running first on the road would be a big disadvantage but as it turned out when the stages were run for the second time in the afternoon, this wasn't as much of an issue as originally thought. Despite the sweeping action, Gronholm, running second on the road, took all but one of the first loop of stages. Mikko Hirvonen put in another solid performance, just like Finland, to reach the mid-point of the day in third.
Mikko Hirvonen
However, the morning saw Subaru succumb to problems once again. Neither Petter Solberg nor Chris Atkinson was prepared to go into detail but it transpired that both were suffering from a solid brake pedal and what appeared to be heat-related issues. The team explained that they diagnosed the problem with a component which had never caused issues before and both cars appeared to be back on form for the second loop, although Atkinson picked up 50sec of penalties for leaving service late. Both drivers appeared to be off the pace once again in the afternoon, although neither admitted to any specific problems.
Petter Solberg
Toshi Arai was having the best time of it for Subaru, despite not being nominated for manufacturer points. He was fifth behind Manfred Stohl after Atkinson's penalty had been applied but even he wasn't immune for the Subaru problems, dropping back behind Atkinson once more, as well as behind Dani Sordo, by the end of the leg with a slipping clutch.
Dani Sordo
The second Citroen driver had a difficult morning, not happy with the balance of his Xsara WRC and finding it difficult to establish the confidence on his first visit to the event and only one pass over the stages on the recce. However, his pace improved in the afternoon, along with his confidence and he ended the first leg in fifth place, after passing Atkinson on the final superspecial stage of the day.
Matthew Wilson
Behind Arai sits Solberg, while behind him are the Stobart VK Ford M-Sport drivers, Matthew Wilson and Luis Perez Companc. Neither driver has any real experience of the 2006-specification Focus RS they are using here and neither have competed before, so were adopting a cautious approach to the first leg. However, both had a relatively uneventful run through the day. Gareth McHale also had a steady run and said he was enjoying the event, despite the need to be extremely careful in the tricky conditions. He finishes the first day in 11th overall.
photo & story: wrc.com
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