Fellow Ford man,
Henning Solberg completes the provisional points scorers in eighth, on his second 'guest' outing under the Munchi’s banner. The Norwegian struggled early on, but was happier after service A and after making some changes to the set-up.
Of the rest,
Citroen privateer
Urmo Aava ended proceedings in ninth, slipping out of the points in the final stage, while
Suzuki WRT duo
Toni Gardemeister and Per-Gunnar Andersson came in tenth and eleventh respectively, followed by
Conrad Rautenbach,
Federico Villagra,
Matthew Wilson and Mads Ostberg.
In the Junior World Rally Championship category Martin Prokop took the lead on SS2 and finished the day 3.7 seconds up on Michal Kosciuszko. Patrik Sandell completes the JWRC podium with Alessandro Bettgea and Jaan Molder fourth and fifth respectively.
Of the retirees, Andreas Mikkelsen and
BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT 'third' driver
Khalid Al Qassimi were the biggest casualties, the former rolling in SS2, while the latter hit a rock in SS4 and damaged the front left of the car. Al Qassimi will now re-start under the SupeRally.
JWRC sensational Sebastien Ogier also had a day to forget and he retired after SS4. Like Khalid, Ogier, plans to re-join on day 2.
The action now continues on Saturday and again it comprises two identical loops of three stages, split by a return to Olbia for service.
The opening stage is based in the same territory as today, while the other two are slightly further inland in the Gallura region. After leaving Olbia at 08.00 hours [local time], drivers will cover 135 kilometres of competition before returning for the final overnight halt at 18.44 hours [local time].
