Manfred Stohl and Ilka Minor somewhat clueless after strong beginning Daniel Carlsson/Denis Giraudet retire from rally after showstart Surprise driver Latvala leads after three of 18 special stages
The OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team had expected a better start into the “Rally d’Italia Sardegna”, the seventh run to the FIA World Rally Championship 2007. After Daniel Carlsson had parked his Citroen Xsara WRC due to personal reasons right after crossing the starting ramp, Manfred Stohl and Ilka Minor fought their way through the morning. This despite the fact that the 117th WRC-assignment had started out very promising for the OMV driver.
Fourth intermediate place after 14 special stage kilometres
Manfred Stohl had been confident once again prior to the start of the Rally Sardinia. Several new parts were supposed to speed the Citroen Xsara WRC of the 34-year-old OMV driver considerably up. And this seemed to come true at the beginning of the rally. The OMV Kronos Citroen WRT was in sensational fourth place at halftime of the 32,13 kilometres long first special stage on Friday. But then the dream came to an end. Stohl: “Suddenly, from one moment to the next, the handling of the car was gone. At first I thought we had a tyre damage and the mousse wasn’t working correctly. But everything was in order after the special stage. Except that the Xsara was undriveable. “ At the service following three special stages the complete car was thoroughly checked. Stohl. “I hope that it will be like in the beginning for back then I was really happy. ”
Carlsson calls it off
For Daniel Carlsson the Rally Sardinia is already history. The 30-year-old Swede parked his Citroen Xsara WRC already after having crossed the showstart ramp on Thursday evening in Porto Cervo. Carlsson cited personal reasons for this action and doesn’t want to give any further comment for the time being.
Latvala causes surprise
Neither Marcus Grönholm nor Mikko Hirvonen took care of the lead for Ford on the morning of day one of the Rally d’Italia Sardegna but their young Finnish countryman Jari-Mati Latvala. The Stobart-driver who had already raised heads with fourth place in Argentina leads 1,5 seconds over Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus WRC) and 6,8 seconds over Petter Solberg (Nor/Subaru Impreza WRC) after three special stages. Last year’s winner Sebastien Loeb takes fifth place, 10,4 seconds behind. Remarkable: four Ford Focus WRC are to be found among the first seven.
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