RALLY CATALUNYA - COSTA DAURADA
Fifty of the original 58 starters left a cloudy Salou this morning for the second leg of this 15th and penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Seven of those competitors restarted under the SupeRally regulations having retired yesterday. Ahead of them all lay six more asphalt speed tests to the north and west of Salou covering 134.85km, split into three loops of two tests.
The opening 20.01km test from El Lloar to La Figuera was cancelled for safety reasons due to the sheer number of spectators after the passage of only five cars. All the leading drivers were awarded the same notional time. So the action began properly on the 27.54km Capafonts special stage, yesterday's Vilaplana test, but in the opposite direction. And once again tyre choice played a crucial part in the performance of BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen and team-mates Roman Kresta and Jan Tománek.
Conditions in El Lloar - La Figuera were predominantly dry while Capafonts was 70 per cent wet. Both Gardemeister and Kresta made a compromise selection, opting for harder compound Michelin tyres on their Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars that would work well in the opening stage and less so in the second test. The cancellation of the first stage was therefore a blow to the plan.
"My tyres were too hard for the stage that was run," explained 30-year-old Gardemeister, who was only 12th fastest but still retained his overnight fourth position. "I had little grip because the stage was mostly wet and it was hard to drive on asphalt with so much mud on the road. It's a shame I didn't have the opportunity to drive the first stage, our tyres would have worked well. It was an unlucky choice but we thought the roads would dry more quickly than they did."
Kresta was 13th on the stage and he too retained his overnight sixth place. "I'm not happy because we compromised on tyre choice and lost out because a stage was cancelled. I think my choice would have been good if the first stage had run. But the second test was damp or wet with just a small dry section before the finish."
Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen climbed to fifth in their privately-entered Focus RS after setting sixth fastest time. "I was lucky because I chose softer tyres which worked well on the stage. They would not have been so good on the first stage," said Hirvonen. Spain's Dani Solà and Xavier Amigo are seventh in their Focus RS, another to opt for harder rubber. Five Focus RS cars now lie in the top 10 positions, Antony Warmbold and Michael Orr climbing to 10th after Gigi Galli crashed out following the flying finish of Capafonts, having just set fastest time.
Leaderboard after stage 8 of 15
1. S Loeb/D Elena F Citroen Xsara 1hr 56min 02.5sec
2. F Duval/S Smeets B Citroen Xsara 1hr 56min 54.9sec
3. M Grönholm/T Rautiainen FIN Peugeot 307 1hr 57min 19.5sec
4. T Gardemeister/J Honkanen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 57min 44.5sec
5. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 58min 08.3sec
6. R Kresta/J Tománek CZ Ford Focus RS 1hr 58min 19.9sec
7= D Solà/X Amigo E Ford Focus RS 1hr 58min 26.0sec
7= X Pons/C Del Barrio E Citroen Xsara 1hr 58min 26.0sec
9. N Bernardi/J-M Fortin F Peugeot 307 1hr 59min 05.5sec
10 A Warmbold/M Orr D Ford Focus RS 1hr 59min 47.6sec
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Rick (Rokie)
rtdring@yahoo.com
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