Marcus termine la journée comme il l’avait commencée : en tête. Seb Loeb a pu prendre la deuxième place à Solberg ce matin, mais a failli tout perdre dans la dernière spéciale : il crève et continue ce qui explose la roue, il doit finir la spéciale sur trois roues ce qui lui fait perdre 1.22.1, le plus dur sera de rentrer au parc. Il y parvint, mais la Xsara est bien amochée, il espère que les 45 minutes d’assistance suffiront à ses mécanosl’équipe a fait un boulot formidable en réparant l’auto. Petter Solberg perd du temps dans l’avant dernière spéciale avec des problèmes de boite. Dans le routier pour rejoindre la dernière spéciale, il a un accident : en évitant une voiture venant en face dans une courbe, il s’écarte et percute une pierre; C’est l’abandon, mais Petter repartira en super rallye demain. Belle démonstration de Marcus, il possède maintenant une bonne avance qui lui premettra d’assurer sa victoire demain. Le classement ce soir avant le départ de l’ES 14 demain 6h47 :
- M. GRÖNHOLM 2:51:18.3
- S. LOEB +1:47.2
- M. HIRVONEN +2:59.2
- D. SORDO +3:57.5
- M. STOHL +4:00.4
- H. SOLBERG +4:03.4
- T. GARDEMEISTER +4:15.2
- X. PONS +5:50.3
- P. SOLBERG +6:16.9
- J. VÄLIMÄKI +7:19.8
- M. WILSON +10:16.5
- H. ROVANPERÄ +10:21.5
- K. KATAJAMAKI +11:51.4
- C. ATKINSON +12:10.9
- A. AIGNER +14:16.2
- F. DUVAL +15:03.4
- A. VOVOS +15:14.8
Les réactions des pilotes :
Marcus : It was very difficult. The road was very rough today, not dangerous, but difficult to go through without problems. I’m not really in a big hurry or panic, so I can have a look and take it easy. Still there is a lot of stones, if you’re unlucky you can have problem. We have to complete tomorrow and then we’ll see.
Seb : For me it was really rough. Very difficult for the car and tyres. On the stage before, I came through and said it was incredible how the car can come through without the puncture. Then on the next stage I had a puncture. I lost the tyre then I broke the wheel and finished on three wheels. So, it was difficult to continue the stage. I lost some time and the road section was very long to come here. The car is very damaged, but I hope my mechanics will be able to fix it tomorrow. The stage was okay, it was after on the road section – I had another puncture and the car was going sideways all of the time. Everything was going worse and worse, I was thinking it could be finished. But now we are here and we will see, we have 45 minutes to see what we can do.
