Stobart battle for points in Spain
Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg are both in contention for another good manufacturers’ point haul at Rallye de España after moving up one place after Saturday morning’s stages in Tarragona. The Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team mates benefited from Evgeny Novikov’s early crash to move up the field with Wilson now seventh overall and Solberg two places further back, just outside the points in ninth.

After struggling with damp conditions yesterday morning, the crews were met with perfect, dry roads on the three-stage loop to the north-west of Salou today. On the opening stage, the 38.27km El Priorat/La Ribera D’Ebre, Wilson and co-driver Scott Martin lost some time after a pace note error caused the young Brit to brake too early on a twisting, technical section of the test. The crew have also grappled with the slippery conditions on many corners where gravel has been dragged onto the road.

Solberg has admitted that he is struggling to find his rhythm on the Tarmac roads, a surface on which he has limited experience and with no pre-event testing under his belt. The Norwegian and co-driver Cato Menkerud are battling with the Focus RS WRC of Federico Villagra for a place in the points as they return for a second pass over the same 63.99km three-stage loop this afternoon.

Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Matthew Wilson said:
“The last stage this morning was really tricky as it was one of the old type roads with lots of cuts and large amounts of gravel on some places. We know that it’s probably going to be worse there on the second pass because it was like that last year. I want to try and push harder this afternoon but I don’t have a good enough feeling with the car yet.”

Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Henning Solberg said:
“I’m trying to drive very carefully and get the right lines but maybe I’m just a bit too slow today. The car feels really nice, but I’m finding it difficult to tell when I’m pushing too much or going too slow. I’m not improving today so I’m going to make some changes in service and go back a step to use the settings I had last year. I am still trying hard but it’s always difficult for me on Tarmac.”

Leaderboard after SS9
1. D Sordo/M Marti (ESP) Citroën C4 1h47m15.6s
2. S Loeb/D Elena (FRA) Citroën C4 +0.9s
3. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen (FIN) Ford Focus RS +44.6s
4. P Solberg/P Mills (NOR) Citroën C4 +1m12.0s
5. S Ogier/J Ingrassia (FRA) Citroën C4 +1m30.7s
6. J-M Latvala/M Anttila (FIN) Ford Focus RS +2m11.9s
7. M Wilson/S Martin (GB) Ford Focus RS +4m46.1s
8. F Villagra/J Perez Companc (ARG) Ford Focus RS +5m22.2s
9. H Solberg/C Menkerud (NOR) Ford Focus RS +5m52.7s
10. D Snobeck/G Mondesir (FRA) Peugeot 307 CC +6m50.7s

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