Subiesport Magazine - February/March 2008 - (Page 75)

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIPGUIDE SAFETY GEAR 2007 aftER tHE DomInant display from Sébastien loeb in Spain, marcus Grönholm was in a determined mood when the WRC arrived in Corsica. Having lost four points to his title rival, Grönholm hoped to pull off an unlikely win in an event that loeb had dominated and won for the previous two years; his times on the opening loop of stages on leg one certainly made the Citroën driver sit up and take notice. although SS1 was cancelled because of spectator problems, Grönholm won the next two to hold a 4.1-second lead over loeb, who even trailed his teammate Dani Sordo in third. However, after a few changes at service, the frenchman was back into his customary asphalt groove to clean up in the afternoon and end the first day with a 4.8-second lead over the ford driver. although he had been pegged back, Grönholm was running better than at the same point a year previously, when he was nearly 20 seconds behind loeb over the same stages. If he was able to keep the pressure on, then he could force the leader into a mistake. not too far behind the leaders, Petter Solberg was enjoying his own private battle with francois Duval and Jari-matti latvala for fourth, and the norwegian recorded several top-five stage times in spite of complaining of grip problems. The trio was separated by just nine seconds after leg one, while Chris atkinson was another 24 seconds behind in seventh and Xevi Pons eighth. Duval’s retirement with a broken alternator on the penultimate stage of the following day made it a two-way fight for the fourth spot, but Solberg, complaining of balance problems in the morning, couldn’t match latvala’s pace in the Stobart VK m- Sport ford focus, and even with third place on the final stage of the leg, he had to settle for fifth going into the final day. loeb, who had won all but one of the stages on leg two, had a tight grip on the rally lead with Grönholm 27 seconds behind. With only four stages remaining, he was able to relax a little, and after winning SS13 he eased off to allow Sordo to take the stage wins. by now Grönholm had settled for second to see his Championship lead whittled down to just four points. Solberg’s battle with latvala intensified as the Subaru driver found that the abrasive tarmac on leg Three suited his Impreza better. a third-fastest time on the penultimate stage of the rally put Solberg within four seconds of latvala, with the 24.23km of Pont de Calzola-agosta 2 still to run. latvala responded in a perfect manner, though, with a third-fastest of his own that ensured he claimed fourth, leaving Solberg to lead the SWRt trio into the closing ceremony in fifth, ahead of atkinson in sixth and Pons in eighth. —David Hobbs SUBIESPORT MAGAZINE 75

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Subiesport Magazine - February/March 2008

Subiesport Magazine - February/March 2008 Contents Travis Geny Letters Readers' Rides Subaru News Subie Sleuths Hatched Plans United in Subarus East Meets West WRC Rally Catalunya WRC Rally France WRC Rally Japan WRC Rally Ireland WRC Wales Rally GB The Future of Subaru WRC Team Orange Where to Buy Subiesport 1993 Impreza "Dreadnought" Performance Radiator Install Special Kei Ad Directory Spotted!

Subiesport Magazine - February/March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.