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Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen,
Focus BP Ford World Rally Team, are in
the lead at the end of the first leg of
rally d’Italia Sardegna
The first leg of Rally d’Italia
Sardegna, race organized by the
Automobile Club Italy and valid as 7th
round of the World Rally Championship,
confirmed the prediction of the eve,
that the duel was going to between
Sabastien Loeb, the actual World Rally
Champion at the wheel of a Citroen Xsara
Wrc of the Team Kronos Total and the
Finnish driver Marcus Gronholm with a
Focus of the BP Ford World Rally Team.
The French driver of Citroen was the
favourite, he won the last four races in
a row of the WRC, but this evening at
the end of the first leg the leader was
the Finnish driver of Ford, that took in
the first stage and kept it for the
whole race. Gronholm finished the leg
with 35”4 over his rival, winning 4 of
the 6 stages of today. “ We have to push
hard tomorrow too – said Gronholm – We
have to start well. Today it’s been
tough but the car went very well”. Loeb
won the other two stages of the day. The
Alsatian driver had quite a few problems
on the three stages of the first round
of today. The set up of his car was not
the right one for this kind of ground
and he lost 40”. Behind these two Mikko
Hirvonen disputed a good race, wary but
also fast, on a route difficult for all
drivers. Among the “big drivers” Petter
Solberg on his Subaru Impreza, was the
one who paid more, he retired at the end
of the last stage of the day. The
Norwegian driver will restart tomorrow
thanks to the Super rally rule.
Behind there were Henning Solberg,
fourth with his Peugeot 307 Wrc, Daniel
Sordo, Citroen Xsara Wrc and Gigi Galli,
Peugeot 307 Wrc. The Italian driver, had
a very bad start, he was 13th at the end
of stage one, pushed hard afterwards
climbing up the overall classification.
“It is a very tough race” said at the
end of the last stage “The start was not
good, we chose not the appropriate tyres.
In the second part of the rally was
better, I attack and we got good results”.
The last one to enter the score zone was
the other Spanish driver Xavier Pons.
Among the cars taking part in the fifth
round of the FIA Junior World Rally
Championship the best one so far has
been Guy Wilks with a Suzuki Super 1600,
in the back Patrick Sandell on Renault
Clio Super 1600. Quite unluck Luca Betti
who stopped with his Renault Clio in the
last stage. The driver from Piedmont
will restart tomorrow too.
In the Ford fiesta Trophy the
protagonist of today was Alessandro
Bettega, son of the unforgettable
Attilio. In the Subaru Cup the
protagonist was Anton Alen, the son of
the famous rally Champion Marku Alen.
The race is still very long: tomorrow
Saturday May 20th, the second leg, with
three stages to be repeated twice, with
a total of 137 timed kilometers,
composed by the SS of Loelle and Monte
Lerno, respectively of 25 and 31 km and
the ss Filigosu 12 km long. The Loelle
stage will pass near the Nuraghe with
the same name, while at Monte Lerno the
drivers will give spectators a big show
on the jump with the same name and on
the jump called “Camel’s hump”
Provisional standing after Leg 1:
Gronholm- Rautiainen (Ford Focus Wrc 06)
total time 1h33’39”9; 2. Loeb – Elena (Citroen
Xsara Wrc) diff. 35”4; 3. Hirvonen –
Lehtinen (Ford Focus Wrc) diff. 1’04”2;
4. H.Solberg – Menkerud ( Peugeot 307
Wrc) diff. 1’44”5; 5. Sordo – Marti (Citreon
Xsara WRrc) diff. 2’04”3; 6. Galli –
Bernacchini (Peugeot 307 Wrc) diff.
2’06”8; 7. Atkinson – MacNeall (Subaru
Impreza Wrc) 2’14”1; 8. Pons – Del
Barrio ( Citroen Xsara Wrc) diff. 2’29”6
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