Rally d'Italia Sardegna Leg 3 Report

Rally d'Italia Sardegna - Leg three
21 May 2006

SS13: 0750 S. Giacomo 1 (13.46km)
After leaving Olbia parc fermé crews headed north for the sandy, narrow S. Giacomo stage, which featured a watersplash 11.5km from the start. Subaru’s Petter Solberg started the morning in the best possible way with the first stage win, just under a second quicker than overnight leader Sébastien Loeb. Petter’s time moved him to one second of seventh position overall. Team-mate Chris Atkinson also started well with fourth best time to consolidate fifth position. Skoda’s Harri Rovanpera broke a differential through the pass and lost over one minute, while François Duval stalled his engine on the startline and took over 10secs to get it restarted.
Fastest Time: Solberg (Subaru) 10:09.3

Sebastien Loeb wins again, Daniel Elena sets record wins

SS14: 0841 La Prugnola 1(9.59km)
Chris Atkinson demonstrated the pace of the Subaru Impreza WRC2006 as he secured his first stage win of the 2006 season. The Australian had an excellent drive through the 9.5km La Prugnola speed test to finish over four seconds faster than reigning world champion Loeb. Chris’ Subaru team-mate Petter Solberg also had a successful stage as he vaulted into seventh ahead of Finn Kristian Sohlberg. Second overall Mikko Hirvonen set the third fastest time through the shortest stage of the rally, however his effort was over a second slower than Loeb and the Frenchman extended his lead to over two minutes 20secs with four stages left to run.
Fastest Time: Atkinson (Subaru) 4:46.0

Dani Sordo, 3rd place, first podium

SS15: 0920 Campovaglio 1 (15.92km)
The final stage of the morning’s loop of stages was Campovaglio, located to the north west of Olbia. The stage had never been used in the rally and ran through the middle of a quarry. Dust was kicked up by the first cars and many drivers, including Hirvonen and Solberg, reported massively reduced visibility. Loeb posted his first stage win of the day, with Subaru duo Atkinson and Solberg continuing their promising morning performance with the second and third fastest times respectively. Petter closed the gap to sixth-placed Jussi Valimaki by more than 10secs to just under 25secs.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 10:53.4

Jussi VÄLIMÄKI, 5th place, 4 points

SS16: 1051 La Prugnola 2 (9.59km)
After a 15 minute regroup in the town of Arzachena, the field headed back north for a further run through the morning's three stages. Petter Solberg started the second loop as he had the first – with a stage win. Crucially, Petter’s time closed him to within 18secs of Valimaki in sixth overall. In a very closely matched battle, the top three stage finishers recorded times within half a second of each other. Hirvonen and Atkinson were second and third respectively, with Loeb recording the fourth quickest time and Duval rounding off the top five.
Fastest Time: Solberg (Subaru) 4:50.5

SS17: 1128 Campovaglio 2 (15.92km)
Petter Solberg’s hunt for sixth place continued in the penultimate stage of Rally d’Italia Sardegna. The Norwegian carved a further seven seconds from Valimaki’s advantage with the second quickest time through Campovaglio and the gap between the pair closed to 10.7secs. Loeb was fastest through the dusty 15km speed test to extend his lead of the rally to nearly three minutes from Mikko Hirvonen. Subaru’s Australian driver Atkinson was again third quickest, with Sordo fourth and Kopecky fifth. The result was the Czech driver’s highest finish of the rally.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 10:40.1

SS18: 1235 S.Giacomo 2 (13.46km)
Jan Kopecky scored his first-ever win on the last stage of the 2006 Rally d’Italia Sardegna. Subaru’s Petter Solberg collected a bent steering arm in the first half of the stage, but pressed on at a safe speed for the remainder of the pass. He lost over three minutes to Kopecky and dropped to ninth overall. Team-mate Chris Atkinson went off the road midway through the speed test after he was distracted by dust in the cockpit of his car and missed his braking point for a corner. The impact damaged his Impreza’s front-left suspension and Atkinson stopped by the side of the road. Under FIA regulations, the Australian was awarded a five minute penalty for failing to finish the stage and fell to tenth overall. Sébastien Loeb secured his fifth consecutive win of 2006 with the result making co-driver Daniel Elena the most successful co-driver in history with 25 WRC victories. Hirvonen finished second overall with Sordo in third, the Spaniard’s first-ever gravel podium.
Fastest Time: Kopecky (Skoda) 10:09.2

Final Result - Rally d'Italia Sardegna

Pos.	Driver	Vehicle	Time	Diff Ldr	Diff Prev
1	LOEB	CITROEN	03:54:18.9
2	HIRVONEN	FORD	03:57:00.3	02:41.4	02:41.4
3	SORDO	CITROEN	03:57:46.6	03:27.7	46.3
4	PONS	CITROEN	03:59:47.2	05:28.3	02:00.6
5	VÄLIMÄKI	MITSUBISHI	04:01:27.7	07:08.8	01:40.5
6	SOHLBERG	SUBARU	04:01:55.8	07:36.9	28.1
7	STOHL	PEUGEOT	04:02:37.3	08:18.4	41.5
8	DUVAL	SKODA	04:04:04.7	09:45.8	01:27.4

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

Rally d'Italia Sardegna Leg 1 Report

Event Bulletin
Rally d'Italia Sardegna - Leg one

19 May 2006


Marcus GRÖNHOLM/Timo RAUTIAINEN/BP FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM
(Photo by Massimo Bettiol)

SS1: 0846 Terranova 1 (24.10km)

The Subaru World Rally Team had a strong start to the 2006 Rally d’Italia Sardegna as Chris Atkinson stormed through the first stage in the second fastest time. Atkinson’s team-mate Solberg finished fourth despite losing time with a spin. The Norwegian had difficulty turning the car round on the narrow road and lost 18secs to stage winner Marcus Gronholm. Several drivers reported a very loose, slippery surface and had problems, including Gigi Galli and Matthew Wilson. The Italian spun five corners from the start, while the young British driver picked up extensive rear suspension damage when he hit a rock one kilometre into the stage. Wilson had started the event with a one minute penalty after his team changed his Focus’ engine before Thursday’s shakedown.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 17:06.9


Gianluigi GALLI/Giovanni BERNACCHINI/Privateer Pirelli-Peugeot
(Photo by Massimo Bettiol)

SS2: 0958 Onani 1 (18.47km)

The second test of Leg one started with a long, fast downhill section that pushed brakes and tyres to their limits as crews descended via tight bends. Also featuring a 1.1km asphalt section, Onani was one of the fastest stages of the event with crews reaching an average speed of more than 90kph. Gronholm extended his overall lead to 20 seconds with his second consecutive stage victory, while Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was second quickest. Hirvonen’s time moved him ahead of Chris Atkinson into second overall. After a slow start to the day, Sébastien Loeb recorded the fifth fastest time and moved ahead of Petter into fourth overall, just 0.5secs from Atkinson in third. Kosti Katajamaki fell from 11th to 14th position when his Focus developed throttle and brake problems, while Wilson fell down the order as he lost nearly six minutes to Gronholm as a result of his suspension damage.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 12:46.0


Sébastien LOEB/Daniel ELENA/KRONOS TOTAL CITROEN WRT
(Photo by Massimo Bettiol)

SS3: 1110 Siniscola 1 (22.25km)

Gronholm hit a gate in the early part of the test although still retained the lead of the rally with a third stage win. Henning Solberg was second fastest and moved up two places into fifth, while reigning world champion Loeb was third to vault Atkinson into third overall. The Frenchman finished the morning’s loop of stages just 0.3secs shy of second-placed Hirvonen, who had reported reduced engine power as a result of dust in the air intake. With a road temperature of 34 C, Subaru’s Solberg held onto fourth overall but felt his tyre choice was too soft for the conditions. The Norwegian also collected some minor suspension damage after a collision with a rock on the racing line.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 17:29.3


Chris ATKINSON/Glenn MACNEALL/SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM
(Photo by Massimo Bettiol)

SS4: 1436 Terranova 2 (24.10km)

After a 30 minute service halt in Olbia, crews headed south for a repeat of the three morning stages. Loeb made amends for his slow start with his first win of the day and leapfrogged Hirvonen into second. Gronholm however retained the overall lead by 39secs with the second fastest time. Petter and brother Henning were evenly matched through the sandy 24.2km pass as they finished just 0.4secs apart. Henning edged closer to Petter in fourth, but both drivers had their share of problems. Henning ran off the road on a short stretch of asphalt while Petter picked up two punctures on the rocky surface. Matthew Wilson’s difficult rally continued as he was nearly four minutes slower than Loeb. His team had repaired the Ford’s suspension in service however he suffered a suspected ECU problem through the first speed test of the afternoon.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 16:32.4


Daniel SORDO/Marc MARTI/Privateer Citroen
(Photo by Massimo Bettiol)

SS5: 1548 Onani 2 (18.47km)


Loeb carved a further four seconds into Gronholm’s lead as he took his second stage win of the day through the repeat of the Onani speed test. After the end of the previous stage Petter Solberg changed one of his two punctured tyres but picked up another puncture through SS5 and lost 48secs to Loeb. The delay allowed brother Henning into fourth and team-mate Chris Atkinson into fifth overall. After reporting he was not completely satisfied with the handling of his Peugeot in the morning’s loop of stages, Manfred Stohl recorded his best stage finish of the day in fifth.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 12:27.4


Jussi VÄLIMÄKI/Jarkko KALLIOLEPO/Privateer Mitsubishi Motors
(Photo by jussivalimaki.com)

SS6: 1715 Siniscola 2 (22.25km)

In a disappointing turn of events for Subaru, Petter Solberg retired on the final stage of the Leg. The Norwegian started the test on two punctured rear tyres but by the 14km point the tyres were so badly damaged he pulled off the road. Petter will restart Leg two with a five minute penalty. Henning Solberg was delayed when he stalled the engine and lost 15secs as he tried to restart. He finished the Leg in fourth with a 20secs advantage over Dani Sordo, who had inherited fifth following Petter’s retirement. Marcus Gronholm won his fourth stage of the day to finish the Leg with a 35secs gap back to second placed Loeb. Chris Atkinson finished the Leg in seventh overall.
Fastest Time: Gronholm (Ford) 17:12.8

Overall Standings after Leg 1

Pos.	Driver	Vehicle	Time	Diff Ldr	Diff Prev
1	GRÖNHOLM	FORD	01:33:39.9
2	LOEB	CITROEN	01:34:15.3	35.4	35.4
3	HIRVONEN	FORD	01:34:44.1	01:04.2	28.8
4	SOLBERG	PEUGEOT	01:35:24.4	01:44.5	40.3
5	SORDO	CITROEN	01:35:44.2	02:04.3	19.8
6	GALLI	PEUGEOT	01:35:46.7	02:06.8	02.5
7	ATKINSON	SUBARU	01:35:54.0	02:14.1	07.3
8	PONS	CITROEN	01:36:09.5	02:29.6	15.5

Technical accounts at Sardinia

Of the world championship competitors, only Subaru appeared with new cars for this event but two of the private WRCar teams had cars which were new for them. The Red Devil Atolya Kazaz team had an S11 (2005 spec) Impreza for the first time (Solberg's Wales Rally GB winning car) for Kristian Sohlberg to drive, and First Motorsport acquired another Skoda Fabia for Francois Duval to drive, the car which Hirvonen had crashed in Japan last year. The main pre-event difficulty faced by teams in Rally d'Italia Sardegna concerned the curious 2006 engine pairing rules. This situation meant for the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team made a hasty return of cars from Argentina. This was safely accomplished, but then there was panic because Matthew Wilson's engine sprang a water leak the day before the start and an engine change (with a mandatory one-minute penalty) was deemed wise.

This was the first time in the championship where not only chassis and engine had to be paired, but also transmission units as well. Except for the special rules regarding the M2 team engines, all these items are to be used next month on the BP Ultimate Acropolis Rally. On technical specifics, Marcus Gronholm's Ford had the latest version uprated engine while Hirvonen had an engine built to Gronholm's previous specification. A team engineer explained why Hirvonen had his valve failure in Argentina: "It was to do with both shipping practicalities and event pairing rules! The valve weakness was identified last January, but by that time the engines were on their way to Mexico, and the engines had to be used also in Argentina with no chance for us to rectify the trouble. It was a problem waiting to happen."

The reason why Gronholm had transmission troubles in Argentina was surprisingly found to have been due to - a water splash. Water had ingested the electrical systems which in turn led to damage in the transmission.

In the FIA Junior World Rally Champiosnhip there was a change when Estonian driver Jaan Molder entered a Suzuki Ignis in place of the Fiesta he had driven in Sweden and Rallye Argentina. The two official Suzuki cars of Andersson and Wilks were new Swifts, but otherwise, it was "business as usual."

Gronholm and Atkinson fastest at Sardinia Shakedown

BP-Ford World Rally Team's Marcus Gronholm is looking to fulfill a pre-event promise to win it all after capturing the quickest time during today's Shakedown. Gronholm completed his run in 2 minutes 57.5 seconds. Subaru World Rally Team's second driver Chris Atkinson completed Shakedown with an identical time as Gronholm.

Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb was the day's third quickest driver - 0.3 seconds behind Gronholm and Atkinson. Loeb comes into the Italian rally with a 21 point advantage in the drivers' standings above Gronholm, and if the Shakedown times are any indication of the weekend's event, the top drivers promise to be close.

OMV-Peugeot Norway World Rally Team's Henning Solberg finished as the fourth quickest driver - a full 1.4 seconds ahead of his younger brother and Subaru's number one driver Petter Solberg. Solberg finished Rallye Argentina second overall last month and is looking to continue his positive run of gravel events and claw his way back into contention for the drivers' championship.

Team-mate to Henning Solberg - Manfred Stohl - completed as the sixth quickest driver. Stohl was 0.3 seconds behind Petter Solberg's time. Stohl and Subaru's Solberg both have 18 points in the drivers' standings leading into Italy and both will be looking to distance himself from the other in the standings.

Jussi Valimaki completed Shakedown as the seventh quickest driver in a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC at three minutes 0.9 seconds and was followed by the 2005 FIA Junior World Rally Champion Dani Sordo, who finished the day as the eighth quickest driver.

First European gravel rally

The seventh round of the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship season - Rally d'Italia Sardegna - is the third gravel event of the season, but it is the first gravel event, which will be held on European soil. The BP-Ford World Rally Team is anxious to make a good impression on the European rally fans by posting a solid result in the Italian event.

"The rally has a mix of everything," said Marcus Gronholm, who currently holds second in the drivers' standings leading into Sardinia. "Some of the stages are quite tight while others are more open and faster. Quite a lot of the competitive distance is new for this year, and I think these roads will be faster than the ones that have been dropped. It's not one of my favourite rallies but neither is it one that I really dislike."

"It's important to score good points here and my target is clear - to win. The car has shown it is fast on gravel but my mistake in Mexico and a problem in Argentina meant that I didn't score the points I feel we deserved. But it's also important to remember that this is still a new car and we continue to fine-tune it as the season progresses. This will be the first time in competition in Sardinia with this Focus RS and I'm sure we will learn more about it during the event," added the Finn.

Gronholm is currently 21 points behind reigning World Champion Sebastien Loeb in the drivers' standings, and though he has posted quicker stage times in recent rallies, Gronholm's mechanical problems have kept him from claiming his third rally victory of the season.

Petter Solberg: "We need to win"

The Subaru World Rally Team ace Petter Solberg has struggled in each of the European rounds held thus far in the 2006 season. His best European result this season has been his seventh place finish at the RallyRACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada in March. The biggest difference between the previous European rallies and the coming Rally d'Italia Sardegna is that the Italian rally will be a gravel event - and Solberg has driven well on both gravel rallies held this season - finishing them both with second place positions.

It's no secret that Solberg has found his pace on gravel, and the Norwegian even lead both Corona Rally Mexico and Rallye Argentina before giving his position to rival and points leader Sebastien Loeb.

Solberg commented at the end of Argentina that if there were no problems with his Impreza WRC2006, he would win the Italian rally - a bold prediction but not totally unfounded. Solberg's pace in Argentina was a match for Loeb, and the Impreza seems suited for the Sardinian gravel. This event has also been positive for Solberg in the past as he finished second in 2005, and lead the event from start to finish in 2004.

"I was very happy with my drive in Argentina," said Solberg. "Okay, things could have been even better but I think we're getting there. We tested in Greece last week and we're making small steps in performance, plus the reliability is improving a lot. We have to prove now that when everything goes well, we can win. This is what the whole team wants, everybody. We need to win."

BF Goodrich goes for seven

Tyre maker BF Goodrich has had a remarkable start to the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship season. They have finished each event of the season with the rally victory - thanks to Kronos Total Citroen World Rally Team's Sebastien Loeb and BP-Ford World Rally Team's Marcus Gronholm, both run BF Goodrich tyres.

The BF Goodrich development team knows that the Rally d'Italia Sardegna has been one of their weaker events in recent years. In 2004, Petter Solberg - running Pirelli tyres - jumped out to an early lead, which he never returned and captured the victory. Though, BF Goodrich has created a surprise tyre for their drivers.

"We call it a 'joker' because although testing went very well it doesn't yet replace an existing tyre," said BF Goodrich's Aime Chatard. "You always got to be careful not to be lured into a false sense of security when testing in rallying. For one thing, the drivers know their test bases increasingly well and that can false the benchmarking process of tested tyres. Also, unlike in circuit races, the drivers don't go over the same roads on the event itself, so the challenge is to extrapolate the results obtained in testing for as yet unknown territory, especially when you're talking about extremely responsive tyres."

"Gravel rally tyres are becoming more and more like racing tyres," Chatard added.

The Rally d'Italia Sardegna will be run 19-21 May.