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Round 12: 61st Wales Rally Great Britain
Pictures of the Wales Rally GB 2005 here.
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MITSUBISHI’S HARRI ROVANPERA SLIPS TO FIFTH Galli maintains competitive pace to hold seventh overnight The Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 crew of Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen held off a mounting challenge from Marcus Grölm in the second leg of Wales Rally GB, but ultimately lost out to their fellow Finn when a gearbox problem dropped them from third to fifth in the penultimate stage. Team-mates "Gigi" Galli and Guido d’Amore have set consistent times in their debut competitive outing in the event and the Italians have moved up the leaderboard into seventh position.
Today, the crews headed to the north-east of Swansea for another seven stages totaling 103.86 competitive kilometers before returning to Cardiff for an all-new 1.1 kilometer special stage in the world-famous Millennium Stadium. With the sliding roof closed at the international sporting venue, Cardiff’s stage represents the first indoor timed section in FIA World Rally Championship history. Again, clear conditions were a welcome sight this morning and the thousands of spectators who poured into the Welsh forests enjoyed spectacular competition in ideal autumnal weather conditions. Harri Rovanperä kept on the pace this morning, the Finn fifth fastest through the opening 19.47 kilometer Crychan stage before dropping some time in the following stage with a broken EMI (mousse) in the front right tire. In the final stage before service he was nevertheless back on the pace, fifth fastest, to hold off Marcus Grönholm, who once again had the podium in his sight. After the mid-leg service Harri maintained his speed, but in the penultimate stage he lost third gear, more than 30 seconds and two positions on the leaderboard. After the short stage in Cardiff - where a crowd of 20,000 witnessed great action - the Finn overnights in fifth after a fine performance during the first two legs of the 12th round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Team-mate Gigi Galli has also been setting some impressive times in his debut competitive outing on Wales Rally GB. The Italian was never outside the top eight this morning and moved up the leaderboard following the misfortune of others. He set a fourth fastest time in SS11, put on a spectacular show in the Millennium Stadium, and overnights in seventh. "I have been staying focused on the road and our notes, because this is my first Rally GB and I have to learn to work myself, not the car, in this situation", said Gigi. "The whole day has been good and with the drier conditions, this makes things ’easier’. I’m happy with our performance for our first time here and we have compared favorably with a lot of other drivers with much more experience of these stages". The final leg, on Sunday, moves directly east of Swansea for the closing four stages - two run twice - before the finish back in Cardiff at 14:00 hrs (local). Even so, the leg takes in 113.62 competitive kilometers. News from our rivals Positions at the top of the leaderboard remain largely unchanged with Sébastien Loeb extending his lead over Petter Solberg to 44.7 seconds. Following Harri’s gearbox problem, Grönholm moved into third with François Duval fourth in the second Citroën. Markko Märtin moves two places up the leaderboard into sixth. Overnight, Toni Gardemeister was excluded for an under weight car and during the day Christopher Atkinson was the leading retirement of the leg, the Australian Subaru driver off the road in the first stage of the leg. Henning Solberg, brother of Petter, also lost more than a minute in SS 7 with a spin. 2005 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship (Round 6/8)
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION DRIVER ERRANI SET FOR RALLY GB POINTS The second leg was the shortest of three, with two loops of three stages in the forests north-east of the Swansea service park before crews headed to Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium for a spectator-friendly purpose-built figure of eight special stage. The bright sunshine continued from leg one keeping the stages dry and fast, covering a competitive distance of 103.86 kilometers. FIA PWRC Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Riccardo Errani’s clutch problems continued throughout the day as a hangover from leg one but his plan to drive steadily rather than take any risks is keeping the Italian on course for the finish he is aiming for. Stuart Jones is still leading the Mitsubishi Group N contenders who are not registered for the FIA PWRC and holds fifth overall in the category, followed by Austrian youngster Andreas Aigner and reigning British Rally Champion David Higgins. British 20-year-old Jones said: "I’m happy enough with my performance although if I hadn’t made some wrong tire choices I think we would have been a place or two higher. Looking at our times today, when the roads are flat and twisty we are quite competitive but we struggle a little uphill. The stage in the Stadium was a lot of fun though; there was a great atmosphere in there!" "Yesterday we dropped way down the order with a puncture and today we are still doing our best to catch up", said the 31-year-old Manx driver. "This morning we bent something on the rear tracking so I had to be a bit cautious; we made up some time but then I overshot a junction this afternoon after getting caught in dust and we lost the time we had just made up, but we have moved up a position from yesterday". The third and final leg includes two identical loops of two stages in the forests east of Swansea, before crews reach the Cardiff finish ramp at 14:00 hrs. |
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| M: drivers nominated in the FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers P: drivers eligible for FIA Production Car World Rally Championship points |
(by mitsubishi-motors.com)