WRC
Rally Sardinia: Subaru final summary
Both Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson demonstrated the stage-winning pace of the Subaru Impreza WRC2006 on the final Leg of Rally d'Italia Sardegna. Petter secured two stage wins while Chris set his first fastest time of the year, however problems ...
Published: May 22, 2006, 8:01 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Both Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson demonstrated the stage-winning pace of the Subaru Impreza WRC2006 on the final Leg of Rally d'Italia Sardegna. Petter secured two stage wins while Chris set his first fastest time of the year, however problems in the final stage of the rally cost both drivers places. A bent steering arm dropped Petter to ninth while accident damage relegated Chris from fifth to tenth.
STAGE REPORTS
SS13: 0750 S. Giacomo 1 (13.46km)
After leaving Olbia parc fermé crews headed north for the sandy, narrow S. Giacomo stage, which featured a watersplash 11.5km from the start. Subaru's Petter Solberg started the morning in the best possible way with the first stage win, just under a second quicker than overnight leader Sébastien Loeb. Petter's time moved him to within one second of seventh position overall. Team-mate Chris Atkinson also started well with the fourth best time to consolidate fifth position. Skoda's Harri Rovanpera broke a differential through the pass and lost over one minute, while François Duval stalled his engine on the startline and took over 10secs to get it restarted.
Fastest Time: Solberg (Subaru) 10:09.3
SS14: 0841 La Prugnola 1 (9.59km)
Chris Atkinson demonstrated the pace of the Subaru Impreza WRC2006 as he secured his first stage win of the 2006 season. The Australian had an excellent drive through the 9.5km La Prugnola speed test to finish over four seconds faster than reigning world champion Loeb. Chris' Subaru team-mate Petter Solberg also had a successful stage as he vaulted into seventh ahead of Finn Kristian Sohlberg. Second overall Mikko Hirvonen set the third fastest time through the shortest stage of the rally, however his effort was over a second slower than Loeb and the Frenchman extended his lead to over two minutes 20secs with four stages left to run.
Fastest Time: Atkinson (Subaru) 4:46.0
SS15: 0920 Campovaglio 1 (15.92km)
The final stage of the morning's loop of stages was Campovaglio, located to the north west of Olbia. The stage had never been used in the rally and ran through the middle of a quarry. Dust was kicked up by the first cars and many drivers, including Hirvonen and Solberg, reported massively reduced visibility. Loeb posted his first stage win of the day, with Subaru duo Atkinson and Solberg continuing their promising morning performance with the second and third fastest times respectively. Petter closed the gap to sixth-placed Jussi Valimaki by more than 10secs to just under 25secs.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 10:53.4
SS16: 1051 La Prugnola 2 (9.59km)
After a 15 minute regroup in the town of Arzachena, the field headed back north for a further run through the morning's three stages. Petter Solberg started the second loop as he had the first - with a stage win. Petter's time closed him to within 18secs of Valimaki in sixth overall. In a very closely matched battle, the top three stage finishers recorded times within half a second of each other. Hirvonen and Atkinson were second and third respectively, with Loeb recording the fourth quickest time and Duval rounding off the top five.
Fastest Time: Solberg (Subaru) 4:50.5
SS17: 1128 Campovaglio 2 (15.92km)
Petter Solberg's hunt for sixth place continued in the penultimate stage. The Norwegian carved a further seven seconds from Valimaki's advantage with the second quickest time through Campovaglio. The gap between the pair closed to 10.7secs. Loeb was fastest through the dusty 15km speed test to extend his lead of the rally to nearly three minutes from Mikko Hirvonen. Subaru's Australian driver Atkinson was again third quickest, with a time identical to that of Sordo, with Kopecky fifth. The result was the Czech driver's highest finish of the rally.
Fastest Time: Loeb (Citroen) 10:40.1
SS18: 1235 S.Giacomo 2 (13.46km)
Jan Kopecky scored his first-ever WRC fastest time on the last stage of the rally. Petter Solberg collected a bent steering arm in the first half of the stage, but pressed on at a safe speed for the remainder of the pass. He lost over three minutes to Kopecky and dropped to ninth overall. Team-mate Chris Atkinson went off the road midway through the speed test after he was distracted by dust in the cockpit of his car and missed his braking point for a corner. The impact damaged his Impreza's front-left suspension and Atkinson stopped by the side of the road. Under FIA regulations, the Australian was awarded a five minute penalty for failing to finish the stage and was classified as tenth overall. Sébastien Loeb secured his fifth consecutive win of 2006 with the result making co-driver Daniel Elena the most successful in history with 25 WRC victories. Hirvonen finished second overall with Sordo in third, the Spaniard's first-ever gravel podium.
Fastest Time: Kopecky (Skoda) 10:09.2
TEAM QUOTES
SWRT SPORTING DIRECTOR, LUIS MOYA: This has been a difficult rally for us with a lot of highs and lows. Overall Chris has had a very encouraging event. His performance has been at a good level throughout; he's been focussed and consistent. He was unfortunate on the last stage when he was distracted by some dust in the car after a very good run in the morning. Petter has had a tough time. When things have worked as they should he has been able to win stages but we have work to do to improve the whole tyre and car package so we can give him and Chris the opportunity to compete for podiums during the rest of the season.
PETTER SOLBERG: It's been a hard event for me. I tried as hard as I could all weekend but the overall result is disappointing. There's not really a lot more to say. We're looking forward to the next event now. I like the Acropolis Rally a lot and I'll give it my best shot.
CHRIS ATKINSON: Overall I'm happy with how I've driven on this rally. Before the last stage we had gone consistently all weekend, made no mistakes and had kept a good pace. Obviously to end the rally like we did is very disappointing, but there was a lot of dust coming into the car and I got distracted. We will be targeting a better finish next month in Greece.
NEWS FROM PIRELLI
MARIO ISOLA, PIRELLI COMPETIZIONI RALLY MANAGER: As we saw yesterday, the car and tyre package has the potential to win stages. The result was ultimately disappointing but this is what happens on a rally like this - we have seen similar things happen before. Unfortunately the last stage dropped Petter to ninth and Chris to tenth, however the early pace was encouraging.
-swrt-
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
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rally Sardinia SS13 results
Next article Rally Sardinia: Leg three final summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
Justin Allgaier wins 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly championship as Brandon Jones wins Homestead finale
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Homestead-Miami
3 min
Justin Allgaier wins 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly championship as Brandon Jones wins Homestead finale
Andrew Patterson crashes into Homestead sand barrels, red-flags NASCAR O’Reilly finale
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Homestead-Miami
1 h
Andrew Patterson crashes into Homestead sand barrels, red-flags NASCAR O’Reilly finale
Liam Lawson rues Brazilian GP qualifying mistake despite third-place grid start
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 h
Liam Lawson rues Brazilian GP qualifying mistake despite third-place grid start
George Russell's Brazilian GP qualifying fury explained: "Pole was there for the taking"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
3 h
George Russell's Brazilian GP qualifying fury explained: "Pole was there for the taking"
Feature
Discover prime content
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
Subscribe