Great Britain : Subaru World Rally Team
At the end of the second day of competition on Wales Rally GB, Petter Solberg holds second place overall, 44 seconds behind the leading Citroen of Sebastien Loeb. Solberg enjoyed another incident-free day on the Welsh gravel stages and his Impreza WRC2005 ran faultlessly over the day`s 103 competitive kilometres.
Solberg`s team-mates Chris Atkinson and Stephane Sarrazin both retired from the Leg after separate incidents in the morning. Chris will re-start the event tomorrow under Superally regulations, but the damage to Stephane`s car was too extensive to allow him to continue.
Petter Solberg
“I`ve enjoyed the day and overall the feeling in the car is okay but I wish we were able to get closer to Sebastien. I particularly liked the stage inside the stadium - it was great fun and I hope the spectators enjoyed it as much as I did. We`re trying as hard as we can out there, going absolutely flat out, but it doesn`t seem to be quite enough. Sebastien is doing a good job and we have to work to find some solution to get quicker. I like tomorrow`s stages, they`re very good and there`s still a long way to go, so I won`t give up.”
Chris Atkinson
“Not such a good day. I was on a slow, tightening corner when the front wheel just caught the apex and spun the car around. We dropped off the road a fair way into some bushes and there was no way for us to get back on the stage. It`s a shame because before the incident the car and the tyres had felt excellent. We were running at a pace that wasn`t far off the guys with much more experience, and when you`re pushing harder then sometimes mistakes happen. The one consolation is that the car is absolutely fine and we can re- join the rally again tomorrow.”
Stephane Sarrazin
“I`m disappointed not to be able to finish this event. It was a simple mistake in one junction; I began to make a right turn when in fact the note was for a left. The car went straight on and the front end was damaged on a low bank. Up until that point things had been getting steadily better. The speed was building and I was getting closer and closer to the competition. Generally though and despite the crash, there are quite a lot of positives to take from this rally, it`s still only my third ever gravel event and Denis and I were making good progress. Now we`ll concentrate on the next event in Corsica and hopefully a better result.”
David Lapworth, Team Principal
“Petter`s had a good day, but today Sebastien`s pace has proved just a bit too much for us. Petter`s driven well, we`ve had no technical problems and the tyres choices have been good. All we can hope now is that we can maintain this kind of pace and keep Loeb under pressure. There is still a long way to go tomorrow and Petter will give it his best shot. Obviously it`s been a disappointing day for both Chris and Stephane. The plan was for both of them to start to build their speed a little today. But unfortunately they both succumbed to small but costly mistakes. The extent of the damage to Stephane`s car means he will be unable to continue tomorrow, but at least Chris will get the chance to show his speed on the remaining four stages.”
Cars leave Felindre Parc Fermé from 0700hrs for a ten minute service. Although Leg three is the shortest day of the event, with only two stages run twice, it has a real sting in the tail. The gruelling 29.39km Resolfen and 27.42km Margam stages are the longest of the event and are run on rocky, twisty ground through forest and parkland to the east of Swansea. The ceremonial finish is scheduled to take place in Cardiff from 14.00.


Tags: great-britain, subaru, impreza, wrc2005, peter-solberg,