BP-Ford World Rally team drivers Roman Kresta and Jan Tomanek climbed
to fifth during today's tough second leg of the Rallye Deutschland.
Cheered on by a huge number of fellow Czechs who have made the 700km
journey to watch their favourites, Kresta overcame a near-minute time
loss this morning when his Ford Focus RS World Rally Car spun off the
road. He faces a massive final leg battle tomorrow with Gigi Galli who
is just 2.4 seconds behind.
Spain's Dani Solà and Xavier Amigo are eighth in a privately-entered
Focus RS, having climbed to fifth earlier in the day. But BP-Ford pair
Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen dropped more than 20 minutes with
an electrical problem on their Focus RS this morning and they are 23rd.
Today's leg was the longest of this 11th round of the FIA World Rally
Championship. Drivers tackled seven asphalt speed tests covering
145.94km. The day comprised the event's most demanding special stages
with two passes over the daunting Baumholder military land, more
commonly used by US soldiers for tank training. Constant changes of
surface, ranging from asphalt to broken concrete, and roads lined by
huge kerb stones (hinkelsteins) provided some of the most challenging
asphalt tests of the season.
Kresta, like Gardemeister, opted for Michelin's medium compound dry
weather tyres all day. He maintained sixth through the opening stage
but went off the road shortly after the midpoint of the Panzerplatte
test on Baumholder. The 29-year-old Czech dropped about 50 seconds and
slipped to seventh.
"I was struggling for grip at the front and on a fast left corner I spun
and went off the road," said Kresta. "The car went down a bank and it
took quite a long time to get back on the road. I don't know why I lost
grip but it was disappointing to drop time when other drivers also had
problems, because we could have moved up the order. Instead we lost a
place."
Kresta continued to struggle with poor grip early this afternoon but
changes to the suspension geometry before the final group of stages
made a big improvement and he moved up to fifth. "Once we made changes
to the geometry this afternoon, the car felt much better and the grip
improved," he added. "I had a puncture on both stages 11 and 12 and
had to drive the final test with a rear left puncture but Michelin's
ATS mousse system worked perfectly to keep the tyre inflated and I had
no problems. Tomorrow will be a big battle with Galli. I'm looking
forward to it and there will be nothing less than maximum attack,"
promised Kresta.
Solà grew in confidence as the day continued. He climbed to fifth on
stage 10, but hydraulic problems during the final two stages cost almost
three minutes and he dropped to eighth.
"Before stage 12 I was warming up the tyres when the hydraulic oil
leaked away," explained Solà. "I had to select the manual gearshift
instead of the semi-automatic version and had no differential pressure
for the final two tests. It's disappointing because I was in a strong
position. But the pre-rally plan was to learn as much as I can about
the car on asphalt and I have done that today. I'm lucky to still be
here and I can continue to learn tomorrow.
"Today was like a different rally because the roads were so different
from those in the vineyards yesterday. I'm still changing some things
on the set-up and my braking isn't perfect, but my feeling with the car
is improving all the time. It feels more precise now and I'm really
pleased with my stage times. I had much more confidence today," added
Solà.
Gardemeister, fifth last night, saw his hopes of a points finish end
early on the second stage this morning. "About 10km after the start
I entered a right corner and suddenly the car just stopped," said the
30-year-old Finn. "I worked on it for almost 20 minutes while talking
to our team engineers on the telephone and was able to bypass the
problem and start the car again. I lost more seconds because I was then
held up by slower cars ahead of me. All I can do now is just drive for
a finish. It's not a nice thing to happen but that's the nature of the
sport."
Team director Malcolm Wilson said the problem was a relay failure on the
car's main master switch. Gardemeister rewired the system to bypass
the relay and that allowed the car to re-start. The team replaced the
rear wiring loom, the central control switch and the main system relay,
allowing Gardemeister to set third fastest time on the first stage of
the final loop.
"There's no big attack because it's impossible to regain all the time I
lost. I'm disappointed because I was enjoying the fight and wanted a
good result. But it gives me the opportunity to test some suspension
parts because I have nothing to lose," added Gardemeister.
News from our Rivals
Team-mates Sebastien Loeb and Francois Duval (both Citroen) continued
their dominance at the top of the leaderboard. They won all seven
stages, Loeb taking five victories to end the leg 27.9sec ahead of
Duval, who won two tests. Neither escaped a tough day unharmed
though. Loeb survived a high speed spin on the first stage and Duval
went off briefly on the same test. Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot) was under
no pressure either in front or from behind and drove cautiously to
retain third ahead of team-mate Markko Martin, who went off the road
on the opening stage and struggled for grip this morning. Gigi Galli
(Mitsubishi) survived two spins this afternoon and is just 2.4sec behind
Kresta in sixth. Petter Solberg (Subaru) dropped almost 3min 30sec when
a gear selection problem meant he drove all of stage eight in third
gear. He is ninth. The only major retirement was Armin Schwarz (Skoda)
who broke his car's radiator after crashing on stage eight.
Tomorrow's Route
The final day is based on the smooth, flowing roads of the Saarland
region, which are predominantly narrow and treacherously slippery in
the wet. Drivers face six tests, two of which will be used twice,
covering 90.08km. The final stage will be a repeat of tonight's last
test through the streets of St Wendel. After leaving Trier at 06.50,
competitors finish at Bostalsee at 14.03, before the leading cars return
to Trier for the ceremonial finish at 16.30.
-ford-
