Gardemeister slipped behind Kopecky in SS10 this morning due to hydraulic problems, which cost him around 20-30 seconds. Although he re-took fifth in SS13, the final test of the loop - Arena Panzerplatte, was again a problematic one and a front shocker absorber problem dropped him back to P6.
Subaru duo,
Petter Solberg and Xavier Pons round out the provisional points’ scorers in seventh and eighth respectively, and despite steering problems on and off all day, ‘Hollywood’ was reasonably happy, although he didn’t cut the gap to Toni and Jan probably quite as much as he would have liked this afternoon. Indeed he still remains around 15 seconds adrift.
Stobart Ford duo
Jari-Matti Latvala and
Matthew Wilson are ninth and eleventh respectively, sandwiching the Subaru of
Chris Atkinson.
The Aussie set some top times during the second leg and was right up with the front runners - even winning SS12 and SS14. His error on day 1 though, when he beached his Impreza WRC in SS2 and lost over 7 minutes has made it all rather academic. If it wasn’t for that he would have been right up with the likes of Gronholm, Duval and Hirvonen.
In the Junior Rally Championship category, Martin Prokop continues to lead in his
Citroen C2 S1600 and he is still comfortably ahead of
Urmo Aava - the gap some 50 seconds.
Conrad Rautenbach completes the JRC podium, potentially giving Citroen a 1-3 finish.
In terms of retirees, Manfred Stohl was the biggest casualty going out in SS9 with engine problems. He will not be able to re-start on Sunday and therefore joins Dani Sordo on the sidelines, the only other ‘works’ retirement. Sordo went out on day 1 in SS5, also co-incidentally with engine issues.
Henning Solberg re-started this morning under the SupeRally and was up to 12th overall until he hit a rock in SS13 and damaged the suspension on his Stobart Ford. He will re-join the fold again on Sunday.
