Sliding and Drifting, Neste Oil Rally of Finland Day 1
18-08-2006
20:33
After the clear victory of Sebastién Loeb in the Deutschland Rallye one week ago, the Neste Oil Rally of Finland was already on the program. 21 stages of full drifting, sliding and jumping between rows of trees in the south of Finland. After the show start yesterday evening, reigning champion Loeb was again in the lead. After a good night sleep, Markus Grönholm started the morning in full attack mode and won the first three stages. But there was no moment to relax for the Ford WRC driver. His team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen and Loeb were not far behind. The maximal lead during the whole day was no more than 17.2 seconds. At the end of the first day, Grönholm leads 12 seconds ahead of Loeb and 43.5 seconds on third placed Hirvonen.
Rain had dominated the day making the conditions for the drivers more difficult than it already was. The reconnaissance was performed in sunny conditions and to make it even worse, the stages 5 and 7 (Vellipohja) were dry but stages 6 and 8 (Mokkipera) were very wet.
Behind the two championship contesters, Petter Solberg and Hirvonen are in a close battle. Both of them are eager to finish in the points after the disastrous performance of the Subaru and Ford mechanical system. Solberg had to back of at the end of the day because of a slower Manfred Stohl (he hit a rock on the 6th stage) and due to a broken steering mechanism but is full of confidence that he can attack tomorrow. Solberg:” Today has mainly been very good. I feel the car has improved very much particularly when jumping and in the rougher parts of the stages. We’ve been very unlucky with the weather and then losing time stuck behind Manfred Stohl. For tomorrow we’re going to keep pushing as we want to get up onto the podium.”
Gigi Galli, for the occasion driving a Peugeot 307cc WRC with the support of Pirelli, drove a good first leg. The Italian public favourite drove spectacular to a 8th position, almost 3 minutes behind Grönholm and only 4 seconds behind Daniel Sordo. Sordo started the rally with cautiously. Halfway the day the young Spaniard found his rhythm and re-entered the top 8.
On the 6th place we find back Chris Atkinson. The Australian driver is nominated to score points for the Subaru WRC team and is well on his way to do so. Overheating problems stalled him for the fight for 5th place but according to the Subaru team, the problem has been fixed.
Tomorrow, the drivers will face 8 stages in dry conditions. This should make it a bit easier for the drivers.
For more information about the rally and timing look on http://www.nesteoilrallyfinland.fi/en/ or hit the WRC button on the main page
