Suzuki drivers make a solid start in Sardinia
Rally d¹Italia Sardegna (I), Friday 16 May, day one (SS1-SS6)Both Suzuki drivers have made a solid start to the Rally d¹Italia Sardegna,round six of the World Rally Championship. Toni Gardemeister returned tofinal service at the harbourside in Olbia occupying a provisional 10thposition, while his team mate P-G Andersson was about nine seconds behindhim in 11th. The crews were greeted by cooler conditions than were expectedon Italy¹s round of the World Championship, and stages that had been madeextremely slippery by recent heavy rainfall.
The Suzuki crews made a cautious start on the opening stage, butGardemeister was up to an impressive sixth by the end of SS2 and arrived atmidday service in a point-scoring eighth. Both cars have reached the finishof day one with no major problems and are poised to improve on theirpositions over the challenging leg two tomorrow.
Car news Suzuki SX4 WRC n.11 (Gardemeister), n.12 (Andersson):
Both cars were largely reliable throughout the day¹s six stages, despite theextremely rough conditions. Toni encountered some small gear selectionproblems throughout the day but otherwise had a clean run to the finish,while P-G struggled with a slight front brake problem. Thanks to some of theimprovements introduced since the Jordan Rally, there were no other issueswith the cars all day: a promising sign that the decision to concentrate onreliability is yielding results.
Driver news:
Toni Gardemeister: ³Today has actually been a very good day for us. To besixth fastest and sixth overall at the end of the longest stage of the rallythis morning was very encouraging. We had a few problems with the downshiftson the gearbox all day, but really nothing major. I just tried to be verysmooth and precise on these stages, because if you go off the line then itis easy to have a puncture or hit a rock.²
P-G Andersson: ³It¹s been a steady start to the rally, but these stages arevery difficult. Maybe it¹s because of the changing level of grip, or maybebecause the roads are so narrow, but it¹s been hard to find a good rhythm.It¹s been very slippery as well a bit more than I expected. I had aproblem with the brakes in the afternoon, but our objective has been to stayout of trouble and so far I think we¹ve managed to achieve that. If we keepthe same level of reliability tomorrow, then I¹m confident that we can moveup the order.²
Team news:
Paul Wilding, Suzuki World Rally Team manager: ³We¹re very pleased with theresult at the end of the first day. The team has achieved its goal in theseunusually rough conditions, and we have been able to learn a lot. We lookforward to building on this solid foundation tomorrow, which will be thelongest day of the rally and every bit as challenging as the conditions wefaced today.²
Leaderboard after Day 1
1. S Loeb/D Elena 1hr 31min 27.6sec
2. D Sordo/M Marti 1hr 32min 03.3sec
3. P Solberg/P Mills 1hr 32min 21.4sec
4. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen 1hr 32min 26.5sec
5. C Atkinson/S Prévot 1hr 32min 36.6sec
6. G Galli/G Bernacchini 1hr 32min 39.9sec
7. J-M Latvala/M Anttila 1hr 32min 58.7sec
8. H Solberg/C Menkerud 1hr 33min 20.1sec
9. U Aava/K Sikk 1hr 33min 47.4sec
10 T Gardemeister/T Tuominen 1hr 33min 50.5sec
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