Event Bulletin
4 Oct. 2003
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Rallye Sanremo
3 to 5 Oct. 2003
|
|
|
Itinerary | |
|
| Entry List | |||
| Course Map | |||
| Results | |||
| Pre Release | |||
| Leg1 Report | |||
 |
Leg2 Report | ||
| Leg3 Report | |||
| Gallery |
|
Leg2 Report
Event Bulletin 4 Oct. 2003 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Starters43 of the original 54 crews left Sanremo parc ferme this morning. Route Leg two comprised 149.10 competitive kilometres and three different tarmac stages, one of which was run twice. The stages were located in the mountains to the north of Sanremo while the day's single service park was at the town of Imperia 40kms along the coast. Weather The day started bright and sunny, but the skies became overcast by lunchtime. It was less humid than yesterday, and the temperature was cooler, ranging between 13 and 24 degrees Celsius. On the stages, roads were mainly dry, with some damp patches in shaded areas. 555 Subaru World Rally Team Summary Just weeks after an inspiring victory on the last WRC round in Australia, Leg 2 in Sanremo turned out to be a disappointing one for the 555 Subaru World Rally Team. Following Solberg's retirement on Friday, Tommi Mäkinen put in a consistent and reliable performance in the team's remaining Impreza WRC2003, but on the dry tarmac stages he was unable to challenge the pace of the leaders. The Finn will start tomorrow's final Leg eleventh overall, but still determined to fight for the best position possible. Stage Reports SS7 0920hrs Teglia 1 (52.30km) 
At 52km Teglia is the longest asphalt stage in the World Rally Championship and the second longest in the whole 2003 series. The test takes crews on a winding ascent to the summit of Mount Ceppo before a roller coaster 1100 metre descent through hairpin bends and narrow roads that hug the mountainside. From the valley floor there's another 1000 metre climb to the Passo Teglia followed by a high-speed dash downhill to the finish line in the town of Rezzo. Taking at least 35 minutes to complete, historically Teglia is where big gains and losses are made on the leaderboard, but on this occasion the two drivers battling for the lead, Sebastien Loeb and Markko Martin, were separated by less than one second.
Martin just edged ahead of Loeb to take the stage win, but overall he trailed Loeb by more than a minute. The gap between the pair had widened at the pre-stage service in Imperia when an electrical problem prevented Martin starting his Ford's engine. The fault was eventually fixed, but the Estonian left service three minutes late and collected 30 seconds in penalty time. Championship leader Richard Burns continued to struggle with a lack of confidence behind the wheel of his works Peugeot and dropped down to eleventh, his tenth place snatched by the privateer Peugeot entry of Frenchman Cedric Robert. A tyre vibration cost 555 Subaru driver Tommi Mäkinen some time, and this combined with a fine performance from tarmac expert Philippe Bugalski in a works Citroen meant the pair swapped places and Bugalski moved ahead of Tommi into eighth.Fastest Time: Martin (Ford) 35:01.7 SS8 1226hrs Cosio 2 (19.19km) After a 20-minute service halt in Imperia, crews headed back to the Cosio stage that was first run as SS3 on Leg 1. In clear conditions Martin was quickest again with Panizzi second and Gronholm third. Loeb dropped around nine seconds after a stall on a hairpin corner 12km from the start and was seventh fastest. Richard Burns was the only mover on the overall leaderboard, a time six seconds quicker than Robert moved him back up the order ahead of the Frenchman into 10th. Fastest Time: Martin (Ford) 11:51.3 SS9 1318hrs San Bartolomeo 2 (25.31km) 
Another repeated stage, San Bartolomeo was first run on Leg 1 as SS4. The 25km speed test took crews up to the 1146m peak of the Colle d'Oggia before one of the trickiest, narrowest sections of the whole rally featuring a succession of closely connected 90-degree corners. This section, according to 555 Subaru team co-driver Phil Mills, is one of the hardest pieces of pacenote reading in the WRC. In a repeat of SS4, Martin was quickest with Loeb second. Meanwhile Gilles Panizzi competitive recovery continued, and a fourth-fastest time was enough to move him ahead of Duval into fifth overall. Burns too was on the move, the Brit edged ahead of Tommi Mäkinen into ninth.Fastest Time: Martin (Ford) 14:44.2 SS10 1317hrs Teglia 2 (52.30km) The Leg finished with a repeat of the opening stage, the marathon 50km section at Teglia. Martin was fastest, which gave him a 100% win rate on all of the day's stages, while Loeb was second and Sainz third. The lead pair will start tomorrow's final Leg separated by 43.2 seconds with 96km remaining. Over the course of today's 149km, Markko managed reduce the Frenchman's advantage by 19.2 seconds. Colin McRae had a lucky escape when he spun his Citroen Xsara mid-stage, but the Scot was able to continue and finished eighth fastest. The only movement in the overall top-10 came from Cedric Robert who moved into 10th place at the expense of Tommi Mäkinen who dropped to 11th. The Finn reported that the clutch on his car was slipping due to a small oil leak, so a precautionary transmission swap was carried out in the final 45-minute service. Fastest Time: Martin (Ford) 34:48.6 Team Quotes 
Luis Moya, 555 Subaru World Rally Team Sporting Director"Clearly this is not the result we were looking for here. We have to improve our performance on dry tarmac. We've agreed with the team to do some additional testing before Corsica to see what can be achieved immediately, but our competitiveness on this particular surface is not going to change overnight. We have to find answers to why we're not in the fight for the lead, and then we can look to find some solutions." Tommi Mäkinen "If you look at our times on the repeated stages then we are closer to the leaders than we were yesterday, but not close enough. We've certainly seen some improvement with the car today, but we have to try and make some steps that will work in Corsica. We'll keep trying our best tomorrow, that's all we can do." |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tomorrow's Leg With a total stage distance of 96km, Leg three is the shortest of the rally and starts when crews collect their cars from Sanremo Parc Ferme from 0700hrs. The real action starts at 0912hrs when the first car will start the 26km stage at Vignai, followed by the 21km Colle d'Oggia section. After a 20-minute service halt back in Imperia crews will then repeat both stages in the afternoon. The winning car is expected to cross the finish ramp back in Sanremo at 1530hrs. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
