Les fords étaient aujourd’hui un peu plus en forme avec un terrain plus sec. Du coté de Kronos, on assure, des consignes ont été données : ramener les deux autos. Kopecky fait une super journée en signant deux scratches ! Petter Solberg lui a abandonné dès la première spéciale du jour, pour son équipier Sarazzin ca va un peu mieux mais ça reste décevant avec un Aigner qui lui passe devant en fin de journée. Le classement :
- S. LOEB 2:47:53.5
- D. SORDO +34.3
- M. GRÖNHOLM +2:14.1
- T. GARDEMEISTER +2:39.8
- M. HIRVONEN +2:56.4
- M. STOHL +3:20.0
- A. AIGNER +4:42.1
- S. SARRAZIN +4:54.7
- J. KOPECKY +5:11.7
- C. ATKINSON +5:23.1
- G. MAC HALE +11:01.6
- E. WEVERS +16:01.7
- M. WILSON +16:17.6
- M. EKSTRÖM +16:39.7
Les commentaires des pilotes au soir de cette deuxième étape :
Sébastien Loeb : « Dani a été très rapide ce matin, dans des conditions de route difficiles. Cet après-midi, nous avons plutôt pensé aux championnats. Conserver nos positions serait extrêmement positif pour Kronos et nous-mêmes avant d’aller affronter Marcus dans son jardin finlandais… Méfions nous toutefois de la dernière étape, que la météo peut parfaitement compliquer… »
Dani Sordo : « La deuxième partie de la journée a été plus facile que la première. Nous avons roulé calmement. J’espère vraiment obtenir cette deuxième place. Un tel résultat serait fantastique pour moi, et correspondrait exactement à ce que le team m’a demandé… »
Marcus : « We swapped the settings back to those we used on the pre-event test, which was dry, and the car felt good. It’s just in the wet that I’m struggling because I don’t have the confidence. I need to practise driving in the wet to find the right set-up for this car, but there hasn’t been much rain this summer to do that. It has been so much better in the dry today. Slick tyres in the rain are just not for me. Now I have to fight to stay on the podium because I cannot catch Dani Sordo in second. I just hope there is no more rain tomorrow so that our tyre choices are easy. If the stages stay dry then I can keep Toni behind, but if it rains or it is damp then I’m in trouble. »
Gardemeister : « It has been difficult, but there is still some fight for the 3rd place »
Hirvo : « I’ve set good times and matched Marcus which I’m happy about. We got our tyre choices right today and I had really good grip. I lost time in the slippery sections this morning because I didn’t have the courage to push, but when I reached a good section with lots of grip I maybe didn’t have the confidence to push as hard as I should have done. I only had one small problem when I drove for about 15km with a big vibration. I thought a wheel bearing was damaged but it turned out to be only a broken mousse inside the tyre. I will try to catch Toni tomorrow but the key factor will again be tyres and everyone will be nervous. I’m not sure I can catch him if we both make the same tyre choice because there are not enough kilometres remaining but if we take different options then it’s possible »
Aigner : « We were consciously using a little harder compound this morning for tactical reasons, this proved a bit detrimental to our times. Moreover I had a tyre failure at ‘Panzerplatte’ which cost me ten seconds. But I still fared well, I hope we’ll be able to keep up our performance. »
Sarazzin : « Today has been better than yesterday. I’ve had a trouble-free run and I’m here with the car in one piece. This morning we made a mistake with the tyre – we thought it would be wet but it was dry. In those circumstances it was difficult to push as hard as we wanted. But in the afternoon we had a more suitable tyre, increased the pace and set better times. »
Solberg : « Things started well today, but without any warning, when we were flat out in sixth gear on SS9, the engine made some pretty bad noises, stopped and that was it. There are still some positives to take from this rally though. We have made some good improvements with the car and when we had the right tyre for the conditions we were quick. I think in general we have taken a good step forward over the summer. We’re planning for Finland now. It’s a rally that I like a lot and I think it will be a very interesting event this year. »
