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| 2008 Rally of Jordan : WRC Round 5 of 15 : 25th - 27th April In this issue: Leg 2 Unofficial Leaderboard Leg 2 News Leg 2 Team by Team News Remaining Event Schedule 1. Unofficial Leaderboard 1. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 2hr 29min 02.9sec 2. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 29min 11.4sec 3. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 29min 13.3sec 4. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 2hr 31min 05.4sec 5. U Aava/K Sikk EST Citroen C4 2hr 32min 10.1sec 6. M Wilson/S Martin GBR Ford Focus RS 2hr 33min 59.4sec 7. H Solberg/C Menkerud NOR Ford Focus RS 2hr 34min 13.8sec 8. F Villagra/J Perez Companc ARG Ford Focus RS 2hr 35min 59.2sec 9. K Al Qassimi/M Orr UAE Ford Focus RS 2hr 36min 13.4sec 10 G Galli/G Bernacchini ITA Ford Focus RS 2hr 40min 32.6sec 2. Leg News Sébastien Loeb (Citroen) stormed into a 34sec lead after winning the first three stages. But he was sidelined following a head-on collision with Conrad Rautenbach's (Citroen) car on a narrow two-way access road leading to and from stage 11. Nobody was injured but both retired. Dani Sordo (Citroen) regained the lead but was relegated by Latvala and Hirvonen before the final stage tactics. His only problem was a slow rear right puncture in stage 13. Seven Focus RS cars fill the top 10 with Stobart's Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg and Munchi's Federico Villagra in points positions. Gigi Galli won the final three stages as he recovered to 10th after yesterday's retirement. Petter Solberg (Subaru), competing under SupeRally rules, retired for the second day after going off the road on the final stage. Unusually, the final day is the longest of the rally and includes a sting in the tail. After a 06.45 restart, drivers tackle two identical loops of three speed tests west of Amman covering 134.24km, split by a mid-morning return to the Dead Sea service park. The final test of each loop is the monster 41.45km Jordan River, one of the longest of the season, which winds alongside the river bed next to Jordan's border with Israel's West Bank. The finish is on the shores of the Dead Sea at 15.00. 4. Team by Team News BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team goes into tomorrow's final day of the Jordan Rally perfectly poised to challenge for victory on this fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila lie second in a Ford Focus RS World Rally Car with team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen in third, just 1.9sec behind their fellow Finns. Both are within striking distance of leader Dani Sordo as only 10.4sec cover the leading trio. Tactics played a key part during today's closing kilometres, played out at the lowest point on earth on the shores of the Dead Sea, more than 400 metres below sea level. Going into the final speed test, Latvala led Hirvonen by 4.6sec with Sordo another 6.5sec behind. Those standings would have placed the BP Ford Abu Dhabi duo in the first two start positions for the final leg, forcing them to sweep slippery loose gravel from the hard-packed roads and give Sordo a cleaner and faster line behind. #3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo LehtinHirvonen, fourth last night, climbed to third this morning. The 27-year-old followed Latvala passed Sordo to take second when he was fastest on this afternoon's opening stage, before he too played his tactical card. "With lots of loose gravel on the road surface of tomorrow's stages, my plan was to ensure I didn't start the final day first," he said. "Things were made easier for us when Loeb retired. He set incredible times at the front and it seemed as though our plan might not work as he was building a big lead but he had an accident and now things look good. "I'm sure I'll have to fight all day tomorrow. Sordo will be fast on the second pass of the stages when the roads are cleaner, even if he loses time on the first pass, and Jari-Matti will be tough to beat. I made no mistakes but when I tried to push hard it was difficult to gain time. I couldn't believe it when I saw Loeb's accident. It was on a very narrow section of road just after a crest," added Hirvonen.en: #4 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: Twenty-three-year-old Latvala started the day in third and posted three second fastest times over the four tests to climb to second and close in on Sordo. He took the lead on the opening stage this afternoon and remained there until tactics came into play on the final test. "We had a pre-event team strategy not to be first on the road tomorrow so I slowed before the finish," he said. "I believe it's the right tactic bit it was a strange feeling having to slow the car down. I pushed as hard as possible until then. It will be a hard day tomorrow but I need to sleep well and attack hard. When I wake up tomorrow, I want to win this rally so I need to be both careful and very fast. "I made quite a few mistakes this morning and couldn't find my confidence. I couldn't respond to Sébastien Loeb's speed. I slid wide too often and also ended in a field after a crest on stage 11 because my pace note was wrong. Luckily I didn't damage the car. This afternoon I felt more comfortable and my performance improved," he added. #19 : Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr: Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr climbed to ninth in another Focus RS. "I started well this morning and had good pace. But at the end of a long straight in stage 10 I hit the brakes, nothing happened and I banked the car. Thankfully there wasn't much damage and I put the car into neutral, got out and completed the stage. My confidence was a bit low after that but I was able to build it back up again," said Al Qassimi. Citroen Total World Rally Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 The second day of the Jordan Rally ended this evening on the shores of the Dead Sea with Dani Sordo/Marc Martí still in front with their Citroën C4 WRC. Urmo Aava/Kuldar Sikk are fifth with their Citroën C4 WRC which is run by PH Sport with the support of technicians from Citroën Sport Technologies. The menu of the second leg was very similar to that of Friday, with four stages to be contested twice each and a total competitive distance of 109.84km. The combination of rocky stages, high speeds and searing heat made it an extremely challenging day, but Citroën's domination in the difficult conditions was poorly rewarded. #1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: The first class run of Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and their C4 WRC was halted by an incident that is rarely seen in the sport: "We decided to push hard this morning to try to move into the lead," explained Sébastien Loeb back at the service park by the Dead Sea. "Our Citroën C4 WRC was very competitive and I was feeling particularly comfortable." Indeed, a sequence of three consecutive fastest times took the defending World Champions to the top of the leaderboard and they were already beginning to pull clear of their chasers. Seb takes up the story again: "The road section between the end of SS11 and the start of the following test was very narrow and there were lots of places where we couldn't see much of the road. Coming out of one such corner, we were unable to avoid running into another competitor coming in the opposite direction. It really is an enormous shame: we were in a good position with regard to both championships, but this is only the fifth round of the season and such a lot that can still happen…" #2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: "I always knew that being first on the road would be a handicap," concluded Dani Sordo. "But I think we succeeded in limiting the damage this morning. This afternoon got off to a poor start when we picked up a slow puncture which dropped us time. I kept up a good pace to stay ahead of our rivals. We recovered first place after the final stage when the others, strangely enough, hit problems. We will have to push hard tomorrow because we want to stay in front, and anything is still possible…" Subaru World Rally Team http://subaru.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=5 Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot hold fourth position overall for the Subaru World Rally Team after battling in-car temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. Petter Solberg and Phil Mills however were ruled out of the competition on the day’s final stage, having earlier demonstrated improved pace with a raft of top-four stage times. #5 : Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: In the Solberg camp, luck was certainly not on the side of the magnanimous Hollywood and Welshman Mills this weekend, and the duo had a fraught day. After setting a string of top-four stage times in a fight for Manufacturers’ points, they were hindered first by a broken shock absorber, suffered a leaking brake caliper and then slid off the road and into retirement on the final stage. Through no fault of their own, three kilometres from the end of stage 11 the rear left suspension damper broke. Solberg was able to complete the remaining 16 kilometres and return for the midday service, enabling the team to replace the damper and attack afresh in the afternoon. Solberg set about restoring the balance with a blistering pace on the day’s penultimate stage, fastest of the field until the last few kilometres when he experienced reduced brake feel. Attacking again in stage 16, he was running second fastest before sliding off the road heavily under braking, 5.3 kilometres into the stage. “We had so much go wrong today” said Petter Solberg. “We knew we had a brake caliper leaking, and in the last stage I braked and the car just didn’t slow down enough. It’s so, so frustrating and just boring, you know. I want to be able to push and drive properly but we just haven’t been able to this weekend.” #6 : Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: Atkinson and Prévot claimed fourth place on the 15 kilometre stage 11, the longest of the day, after an accident between rally leader Sebastien Loeb and Conrad Rautenbach on the road section between stages forced both involved to retire. With a comfortable gap to the crews in third and fifth, and despite going third fastest on stage 15, Atkinson wasn’t taking any risks on the treacherously difficult surface. “The biggest focus for us today was to get to the finish, make no mistakes and just hold position” said Chris Atkinson. “We had no major problems and got here ok. There is a big gap in front and behind of us, but we can’t afford to lose too much time so we were still driving reasonably quickly, just not taking any risks by driving around rocks and things like that. I’m happy with fourth though. “I think tomorrow will need even more caution as the stages are more difficult, especially the long Jordan River stage, and they are a lot more loose and slippery. We’ll approach tomorrow in exactly the same way.” Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 A drama-filled day 2 of the Jordan Rally has seen all three Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team members advance inside the top-ten leaderboard. The current results put both nominated points scoring crews in a strong position for another solid haul in the FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers. Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin continue to lead the pack occupying sixth outright with another impressive day of driving. The British pair managed to hold the fine position to the end of the day after advancing from seventh earlier this morning. Norwegians Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud brushed off some early cobwebs to move into seventh position by day’s end. The pair clicked into gear in the afternoon loop of stages after finding a comfortable setup which worked well with Pirelli’s Scorpion gravel tyre. Returning under SupeRally regulations after retiring from day 1, Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini put on an excellent display to move into 10th position by the end of day 2. The Italian made some small changes to the setup of his Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC07 which resulted in prime performance as he set fastest stage times on the final three stages this afternoon. Twenty-one-year-old Wilson’s multitude of top-eight stage times and consistent driving rewarded him with advancement on his overnight position as he now looks poised for yet another points finish with one day remaining. He will head into tomorrow’s final leg with team-mate Solberg lurking just 14.4 seconds adrift. #7 : Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini: ”Malcolm gave me some good advice this morning and obviously it’s helped as I managed to get three fastest times this afternoon. I think that, before, I was attacking too hard trying to find the times but now I’m driving more smoothly and it feels a lot better like this. The car has really been great today and now I’m starting to feel the tyres working with me. I feel more relaxed today and I’m starting to get a good flow with the stages.” #8 : Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: “Today felt much better than yesterday especially on the second pass of the stages. My times were much faster on the afternoon loop as we made a few small changes in service and they helped to give me more confidence. It’s not easy to go fast right from the start especially when we don’t get to do much testing. I managed to get some time back on Matthew today and it looks like we have a bit of a race tomorrow but there are still quite a lot of kilometres left and we can’t afford to make a mistake on the last day.” #16 : Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin: “We’ve got a battle now with Henning and I think I’m going to have to give it a bit of a push tomorrow to keep out of his reach. I enjoyed today and everything feels good; the car has been great. We had a big sideways moment halfway through the last stage today, we were basically flat out and I just managed to hang onto it so I still need to keep concentrating for tomorrow. But I’m quite confident as things have gone quite well so far and I haven’t made any mistakes.” Suzuki World Rally Team http://suzuki.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=12 P-G Andersson re-started the second day of Jordan Rally and set top 10 times on all but one of the day's eight stages in a solid display of consistent pace from the Swede. The double Junior Rally Champion's Suzuki SX4 WRC ran without any technical faults for the duration of the day, despite continued searing temperatures closing on 40 degrees beside the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth's surface. The Suzuki World Rally Team has been pleased to bring the SX4 WRC of P-G Andersson through a trouble-free day on one of the toughest ever rounds of the World Rally Championship. Andersson reported no problems on day two and was quick enough to post sixth fastest time in the penultimate test - the second run through Shuna, the longest stage of the day. Andersson's hopes of a top finish were blown when he slid off the road on the opening stage of the event, but after a strong day behind the wheel of the SX4 WRC, he is in a confident mood ahead of the final day of the inaugural Jordan Rally. #11 : Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen: Retired. #12 : Per-Gunnar Andersson/Jonas Andersson: "Today has been really good. I was a little bit steady with my pace after I had made a mistake yesterday - there was no way I wanted to do that again. When I came out of the first stage, I could see that my pace had been much too quick yesterday - I learned a great deal about driving on this surface today. The car has been very good. We had some small issues on the downshift, but that was really a minor transmission thing. I am pleased for the team and for myself that we have been able to come through today with some speed and no trouble. I had to think of today as a new day and forget about what happened yesterday, but it's a real shame - we could have had a good finish here without the problem on day one. Okay, that's the sport sometimes." 5. Remaing Event Schedule Sunday 27 April: Day 3 Dead Sea - Dead Sea Serv F Dead Sea (15 mins) 06.45 SS17 Kafrain 1 16.49km 07.37 SS18 Wadi Shuelb 1 9.18km 08.10 SS19 Jordan River 1 41.45km 09.13 Serv G Dead Sea (30 mins) 10.23 SS20 Kafrain 2 16.49km 11.30 SS21 Wadi Shuelb 2 9.18km 12.03 SS22 Jordan River 2 41.45km 13.06 Serv H Dead Sea (10 mins) 14.06 Finish Dead Sea 15.00 Total 134.24km Rally total 359.26km |