WRC

Rally Sardinia day two report

Sebastien Loeb, Citroen Xsara WRC Is In The Lead The French driver took advantage of Marcus Gronholm, Ford Focus Wrc, retirement and took the lead of the rally. Gigi Galli, Peugeot 307 Wrc, retired because of mechanical problems in the last stage ...

Published: May 21, 2006, 5:29 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sebastien Loeb, Citroen Xsara WRC Is In The Lead

The French driver took advantage of Marcus Gronholm, Ford Focus Wrc, retirement and took the lead of the rally. Gigi Galli, Peugeot 307 Wrc, retired because of mechanical problems in the last stage of the day while fighting for the podium

An unfinished series of Coup de theatre at Rally d'Italia sardegna, race organized by the Automobile Club Italy, seventh round of the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship. The duel started yesterday between Marcus Gronholm, Ford, and Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, finished today on the second special stage of the second leg with the retirement of the Ford's Finnish driver. While braking the Focus of the Fins hit a rock with the front of the car and broke the sump and lost all the oil. A bad luck that gave Loeb the possibility to take the lead, with quite a big advantage over the other drivers. During tomorrow's difficult final leg he can calmly manage his advantage. At the end of Leg 2 Loeb is in the lead with over two minutes over Mikko hirvonen, Ford Focus Wrc, the latter one drove quite fast today too. Thee 26 years old Finnish driver has to watch his back from the Spanish driver Daniel Sordo on a Citroen Xsara Wrc, that passed in the last special stage of the day Gigi Galli at the wheel of a Peugeot 307 Wrc, even though only by 1"3.

The two drivers were fighting all day and got very close to Hirvonen. The coup de theatre for the Italian driver Gigi Galli, arrived few meters after the finish of the last stage of the day. His 307 had a problem with the radiator that impede him to reach the last TC, that's to say the finish line of today's leg. If during the night the car would be fixed the Italian driver will be able to restart tomorrow thanks to the Super Rally rule, but he will give up the fight for the upper places of the classification, because he will start with a 5 minutes penalty.

The fight for the second and third place will be the main issue of tomorrow's leg, while for the lead everything seems almost done. The third and final leg will start tomorrow at 7.00 am from the Service Park in Olbia and the first stage is going to be a classic of this rally, San Giacomo. The leg will then go on in the Gallura region on the gravel roads of La Prugnola and Campovaglio. The day will finish with the Arrival Ceremony in Porto Cervo at 2.15 pm. The leg is composed of three stages for a total of 78 km.

Behind the leaders a big gap. Xavier Pons third driver of the Citroen Kronos team is 4'30" behind them. The Spanish is in front of Atkinson on Subaru and Jussi Valimaki with Mitsubishi Lancer. Another Subaru of the Finnish driver Solberg is 8th overall, the last place giving points for the World Rally Championship. Among the drivers racing for the fifth round of the JWRC the leader is Guy Wilks on a Suzuki Swift Super 1600, followedf by Patrick sandell on Renault Clio Super 1600, like yesterday. Third is now Conrad Rautenbach with another Renault Clio. Goes on the good race of Alessandro Bettega among the cars of the Ford Fiesta Trophy, while among the cars of the Subaru Cup Alan Scorcioni is leading afterb a long fight with Anton Alen,. The Finnish has been obliged to retire because he went off the road and hit a tree in the last stage.

-rallyitaliasardegna.com

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Rally Sardinia SS9 results

Next article Rally Sardinia: Leg two summary

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 5 h

Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”

How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

5 h

How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

5 h

Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

12 h

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Feature

Discover prime content

A story of persistence as Elfyn Evans' long wait for WRC glory finally ends

WRC

Rally Italy

By Tom Howard

A story of persistence as Elfyn Evans' long wait for WRC glory finally ends

How Elfyn Evans made WRC history in Hollywood blockbuster Sardinia decider

WRC

Rally Italy

By Tom Howard

How Elfyn Evans made WRC history in Hollywood blockbuster Sardinia decider

What a revival of the World Rally Championship could look like

WRC

By Tom Howard

What a revival of the World Rally Championship could look like

How Oliver Solberg lit up WRC title fight in Chile

WRC

Rally Chile

By Tom Howard

How Oliver Solberg lit up WRC title fight in Chile

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts