This the opening day of competition of the 2011 WRC Rally d’Italia Sardegna thilled rally enthusiasts with its beautiful scenery, dramatic twists in the action and demanding nature of the event for crews, writes EVAN ROTHMAN.
After eight punishing stages run over 131km of intense competition, it is seven times World Champions Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen DS3 WRC for the Citroen Total World Rally Team) that leads privateers Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson (Citroen DS3 WRC for the Petter Solberg World Rally Team), with a hard-charging Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC for the Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) in third place overall and only 53.1sec behind the overnight leader.
Testament to his speed and sheer driving ability, Loeb has somewhat dispelled the theory that the first car on the road on the stages today would suffer from the road-sweeping phenomena. The Frenchman was able to not only set competitive stage times, but he also managed to open up a considerable advantage of 33.2sec ahead of his rivals.
Hirvonen was in embroiled in a head-to-head battle with Loeb throughout much of Day One, until SS5 when he dropped time as a result of an unfortunate puncture. Separated by only 01.2sec at the beginning of SS5, Hirvonen was proving his car’s might pace, but a solid and concerted effort in the afternoon’s remaining loop of stages saw Hirvonen minimise the loss of stage time to the leader.
Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassi (Citroen DS3 WRC for the Citroen Total World Rally Team) lie in fourth place after an up-and-down day in their rally machine. They are 02.4sec behind Hirvonen at the overnight halt and less than 10sec ahead of Mads Ostberg/Jonas Andersson (Ford Fiesta RS WRC for the Stobart Ford M-Sport World Rally Team).
Dani Sordo has rewarded the MINI Motorsport team with a fantastic debut, finishing Day One of the MINI WRC Team’s debut competitive outing in sixth place overall and only 29sec off Ostberg and 01min 33.2sec behind former team-mate Loeb.
The fastest of the SWRC runners is Estonian sensation Ott Tanak (Ford Fiesta S2000), who is seventh overall on the rally’s leader board at the close of Day One. He is 25.7sec ahead of Martin Prokop (Ford Fiesta S2000) and reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Juho Hanninen (Skoda Fabia S2000) a further 18.1sec adrift in third in Class.
In this the second outing for the WRC Academy competitors, it was also a tough day for all. Of the 18 starters, only five have survived the long day in their cars. Christian Reidemann leads Fredrik Ahlin by 08.9sec and Miguel Baldoni by 14.9sec after a challenging and stage-by-stage thriller.
The rally route takes in 143km of stages for Day Two over six stages. The first car will take to the stages at 08h00 (local time).
