Solberg set for victory
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
ByEurosport
Published 02/10/2004 at 13:55 GMT
Petter Solberg looks set to celebrate his third consecutive WRC victory after opening up a 1min 11sec lead over Citroen's Sebastien Loeb on the Rally of Sardinia. The Norwegian won six of Saturday's seven stages to extend his lead while both Peugeot's suf
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Solberg, winner of the previous two World Rally championship events in Japan and Great Britain, began the day with an already healthy 32-second lead over Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm, but that advantage was immediately extended when the second placed Finn dropped 23 minutes with engine problems on Stage 9.
"The turbo failed and we were left with no boost at all," Gronholm said. "We tried to see if we could fix the problem but it was not possible. Now it is all over, which is a pity as I think we were able to fight at the front."
As a result of Gronholm's woes, Citroen's Sebastien Loeb was automatically elevated to second, but a massive fifty seconds adrift of the flying Norwegian that slowly stretched out to 1min 11secs by the end of the day.
"It's going really well, no problem at all," Solberg said after stage 9. "We're not going to make any changes in service, the car is good and I'm just going to carry on, keep calm and watch the split times."
Citroen's Carlos Sainz finds himself third overall thanks to his typically consitent runs, albeit over a minute slower than his French team-mate, with Ford's Markko Martin just 3 seconds back in fourth after suffering a problematic afternoon in the dusty condition.
"I had a lot of gravel in my eyes and couldn"t see properly," explained the Estonian. "Every time we went into a dip or into ruts in the road, sand kicked up onto the bonnet. It then blew into the car through the air ventilators and my eyes became full of dust."
Stage 9 proved disastrous for Peugeot when Harri Rovanpera retired before the start with an electrical fault, while Belgian Francois Duval also lost time after going off in the stage but battled back into sixth overall.
Skoda's event has come to a premature end when Armin Schwarz, their sole remaining representative, retired with a broken front left wishbone.
Scan me
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement