RALLY NEWS NO.5                                              Sligo/Service/Friday/4.45

 

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 Glenboy

1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen C4) 1.19.46.9

2nd (2) Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Citroen C4) 1.19.57.3

3rd (9) Jari Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Focus WRC) 1.21.00.5

4th (4) Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Focus WRC) 1.21.12.7

5th (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Impreza WRC) 1.21.44.0

6th (18) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Impreza WRC) 1.23.08.6

7th (5) Manfred Stohl/Iika Minor (Xsara WRC) 1.23.41.4

8th (16) Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (Focus WRC) 1.25.24.6

9th (27) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.26.06.9

10th (20) Gareth MacHale/Allan Harryman (Focus WRC) 1.26.45.7    

Through the very fast Glenboy stages, all 22.25kms of it, Sebastien Loeb was quickest by 2s from Jari Matti Latvala with Dani Sordo 3rd fastest.  Just 3.6s separated the top cars so it is all very close indeed.  Petter Solberg was just a couple of seconds in arrears through the stage but unfortunately his brother Henning has crashed his Focus off the road and looks for the moment anyway to be out of the proceedings.  Loeb commented at stage finish. “I have not such a good feel. At 6kms I went straight on at a junction”.  Mikko Hirvonen also felt that he hadn’t gone so well through the stage and indeed he did overshoot a junction and he was 9s down on Petter Solberg at stage finish.  Dani Sordo felt that he had made a safe tyre choice but then had a spin at a junction. Latvala knew he had a good run, that it felt fast and indeed it showed on the stop watch.  Manfred Stohl said he was going so fast it felt like he was in a jet fighter plane and along with many other drivers he had an overshoot in the stage.

Guy Wilks was trying hard but at the same time attempting to keep everything very steady.  Gareth MacHale admitted to leaving his braking late when he overshot a square right junction.  Andreas Mikkelsen was late out of service as the engineers again tried to sort out the hydraulics on his gear change and differential set up, but once again it has gone awry and Andreas dropped some time. He said “But I never give up”.  Andrew Nesbitt rated it as an excellent stage. Aaron MacHale finished the stage with his Focus light pod dragging the road but still all in one piece and somehow or another with all the lights still working. Aaron’s time was fairly respectable also. 

Austin MacHale said. “It is hard to call on tyre choice. I’m on a fairly hard compound which doesn’t heat up until 2 or 3 miles into the stage, but you have to treat the stages with respect, like Monte Carlo on ice, but the stages are excellent”.  Tim McNulty is holding on to his top 10 place but is physically and mentally getting tired now so he’ll have a job to hold station through the next 2 stages.  Ray Breen tried a different pattern tyre on his Focus through stage 8 and felt it worked very well. Kevin Barrett lost time with an overshoot. 

Mark Higgins again set an ultra competitive Group N time in his Subaru and the early times would show still leading the Production category.  Niall McShea didn’t seem too happy at stage finish but still set a decent time just 1.5s slower than Mark Higgins.  There has been some confusion over the finish time for Guy Wilks on stage 8 so the above totals are still very provisional.  No news as yet on where Kris Meeke is lying.  He got his Subaru out of stage 7 after the accident and then got blocked behind Aigner’s accident.  Kris got his Subaru into service and then went on to do stage 8.  He is out of stage 8 although the Subaru looked a bit wayward but we do not know as yet just what position he holds in the rally. 

Unofficially Mark Higgins is now into 11th o/a and leading the Production category with Gabriel Pozzo 12th.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson)

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