Quel superbe duel entre Marcus et Seb et quelle galère pour Petter ! Derrière les écarts sont faibles. Demain, tout le monde va être à l’attaque : grosse attaque ! Le classement au soir de la première étape :
- M. GRÖNHOLM 1:12:29.8
- S. LOEB +10.2
- G. GALLI +57.5
- D. CARLSSON +1:03.0
- M. EKSTRÖM +1:22.4
- M. STOHL +1:28.7
- H. SOLBERG +1:40.3
- K. SOHLBERG +1:48.4
- J. TUOHINO +1:51.4
- T. RÅDSTRÖM +2:11.4
- K. KATAJAMÄKI +2:38.2
- D. SORDO +3:19.5
- X. PONS +3:23.8
- J. JOGE +4:03.8
- T. SCHIE +4:09.3
- M. WILSON +4:28.2
- J. KOPECK? +4:30.5
- J. HÄNNINEN +5:32.7
- J. KETOMÄKI +5:38.8
- P. FLODIN +5:47.4
- P. SOLBERG +5:55.3
- A. AIGNER +6:16.7
- M. SOLOWOW +6:32.2
- P. ANDERSSON +7:07.5
- P. SANDELL +7:32.3
- C. ATKINSON +7:43.4
Les commentaires des pilotes :
Marcus Grönholm : I am pushing as hard as I can, I cannot go any faster. Today has been an enjoyable battle with Sebastien, this is how rallies should go. My car is not exactly as it was in the test.
Sebastien Loeb, d’abord au sujet de la pénalité de 10s à cause d’un retard au pointage : On ne va pas parler de ça tout le rallye. Avec ou sans, ce soir, nous serions juste devant Marcus ou bien un peu derrière. Il y aurait tout de même ce duel vraiment exaltant, cette superbe bagarre. Nous avons la chance d’avoir des conditions parfaites. On s’amuse vraiment. J’attaque au maximum. Marcus aussi, si j’en juge par l’état des murs de neige après son passage ! Finalement, être dans la position du chasseur n’est pas une si mauvaise chose ! Demain, on continue la chasse…
Gigi Galli : I am very happy with the way today has gone. I am happy with the pace notes and I am happy with the car and I am very happy that Daniel and I are doing so well for Mitsubishi. I took no risks on the long stage and I will do my best to keep my place in the top three. When it is important I am going carefully, I do not want to make any mistakes.
Mattias Ekstrom : Everything went almost perfectly for me. Just after the start of the rally I had some troubles communicating with my co-pilot and then I did not choose the right tyres for SS4. The Fabia worked flawlessly, I really enjoyed driving the car as I wanted to without having to take any risk. I expect a similar performance on Saturday.
Manfred Stohl : It was rather unsettling. I’m glad we managed to complete this stage without any incidents. The rally is as difficult as we expected it to be but we are doing fine. Our current ranking also means a better starting position for Saturday. The rally is not over by far.
Et Ilka Minor sa copilote : The problem is: on the one hand you have to read the notes very fast and then again very slowly. It is hard to get the right mixture and there is no way to find a consistent pace
Petter Solberg : It’s such a shame that we weren’t able to get the result we wanted today. The new car felt incredible yesterday and I was really excited about putting it to the test this morning. We’ve suffered more than our fair share of problems today and now we’re in a position where we can’t do anything other than test for the future. Of course we’ll do what we can to learn and make the most of this opportunity but overall it’s very disappointing.
Chris Atkinson : The day started out very well, and we were happy with the speed at the beginning but unfortunately a small mistake, and then the power steering problem as a result, cost us a lot of time. Otherwise I really think we could be in a position for a podium – the car and the tyres felt very good. I’ve just got to move on now and try to learn more over the rest of the weekend. It’s a shame though; this was one of the events we were looking to get experience on and maybe a strong finish. In fact, it turned out that with our speed that we could have been heading for a really good result. I hope we can make more of the potential in Mexico.
Malcolm Wilson : Matthew has done everything I asked of him today. It’s been very good. The gap between him and drivers ahead has come down through the day, he’s now less than half a second per kilometre down on Kosti – and Kosti won the Arctic Rally last week. I’m pleased with that. Kosti’s time on the long stage was better, he wasn’t too happy with himself this morning, but things are looking better now.
- Les photos de rallypics.be avec les soucis de Petter
- L’article du jour sur la Skoda de Kopecky
- La gallerie Adrivo se complète
- Les photos de Sutton du jour
- Plusieurs pages de photos chez les Roumains
- La vidéo du jour de YLE
parviens pas à lire la vidéo YLE
Grönholm en grande forme cette année ! Serait-on revenus en 2002 ? …
Loeb très fort, il faut le dire et ne pas lui enlever ce mérite, 2e devant une troupe de scandinaves, chapeau ! Derrière, un Galli impressionnant, un Tuohino décevant et un P. Solber largué… bilan "mouvementé" à la fin de la première étape, un régal à suivre ce rallye, d’autant plus avec tous les liens que tu nous proposes traxx !