Sardinia : Leg 2 - SummarySebastien Loeb took advantage of
Marcus Gronholm's retirement to take the lead of the rally. Gigi Galli, at the wheel of his Peugeot 307 WRC, retired because of mechanical problems in the last stage of the day while fighting for the podium.
An
unfinished series of Coup de theatre at Rally d'Italia sardegna, race organized by the Automobile Club Italy, seventh round of the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship. The duel started yesterday between
Marcus Gronholm and
Sebastien Loeb finished today on the second special stage of the second leg with the retirement of the Ford driver.
While braking the Focus of the Finn hit a rock with the front of the car and broke the sump and lost all the oil. A bad luck that gave Loeb the possibility to take the lead, with quite a big advantage over the other drivers.
During tomorrow's difficult final leg Loeb can calmly manage his advantage. At the end of Leg 2 Loeb is in the lead by more than two minutes over Mikko hirvonen. The Finn drove quite fast today too. The 26 years old Ford driver has to watch his back from the Spanish driver Daniel Sordo that passed in the last special stage of the day Gigi Galli at the wheel of his Peugeot 307 WRC.
The two drivers were fighting all day and got very close to Hirvonen. The coup de theatre for the Italian driver Gigi Galli, arrived a few meters after the finish of the last stage of the day.
His 307 had a problem with the radiator that stopped him to reach the last TC, that's to say the finish line of today's leg. If during the night the car would be fixed the Italian driver will be able to restart tomorrow thanks to the Super Rally rule, but he will give up the fight for the upper places of the classification, because he will start with a 5-minute penalty.
The fight for the second and third places will be the main issue of tomorrow's leg, while for the lead everything seems almost done.
Behind the leaders is a big gap. Xavier Pons is 4'30” behind them. The Spaniard is in front of Atkinson in his Subaru and Jussi Valimaki at the wheel of his Mitsubishi Lancer.
Another Subaru of the Finnish driver Sohlberg is 8th overall, the last place giving points for the World Rally Championship.
Among the drivers racing for the fifth round of the JWRC the leader is Guy Wilks in a Suzuki Swift Super 1600, followed by Patrick Sandell, driving a Renault Clio Super 1600. Third is Conrad Rautenbach with another Renault Clio.
The third and final leg will start tomorrow at 7.00 am from the Service Park in Olbia and the first stage is going to be a classic of this rally, San Giacomo. The leg will then go on in the Gallura region on the gravel roads of La Prugnola and Campovaglio. The day will finish with the Arrival Ceremony in Porto Cervo at 2.15 pm. The leg is composed of three stages for a total of 78 km.
Press release Rally d'Italia Sardegna
