Ford works team lead driver Marcus Gronholm holds the slight edge in
the first day of World Rally Championship competition in the Acropolis
Rally. The first leg in Greece was filled with typical ups and downs
under dry and hot conditions covering seven of the nine originally
scheduled special stages.
"It's great to be leading tonight from my start position. It's been a
hard day, but that's normal in Greece, and I lost time this morning by
cleaning the road," commented the Finn about his leg one lead. "The time
gaps are small and that's unusual, but close competition is good for the
sport. Tomorrow morning's long stage will be hard on tyres and I think
we will see who is awake and who is sleeping at the end of that test."
The opening stage one Superspecial was held last night near Athens with
Gronholm's teammate Mikko Hirvonen placing his Ford Focus RS WRC 06 in the overnight
lead, covering 3.2km. The rally drivers headed out in the morning with
temperatures nearing 30 Celsius.
The Finn, with two special wins today, has a gap of 8.3 seconds over
Petter Solberg's Subaru Impreza WRC 06. Gronholm took over the lead in
the first real test of the day -- 11.57km SS2 first pass of Schimatari
-- before taking the second pass to land the SS6 win later in the
afternoon after the service break.
"It wasn't easy being first on the road because there was plenty of
slippery loose gravel," Gronholm said. "It was hard to get good grip and
only the first stage this morning, when I was fastest, wasn't affected.
In those conditions I couldn't have done any more than I did."
Solberg's young teammate Chris Atkinson sits third, a mere 0.7 seconds
off the Norwegian's pace. The two Subaru racers had the best opening
round of the season today. After the win on the first Thiva run (SS3) --
the longest special of the day at 23.76km -- the Aussie moved into the
overall lead.
"We're delighted to have two cars in podium positions at the end of leg
one. We made a strong tyre choice for this morning's loop of stages
and it was fantastic for Chris to be leading when the cars came back
into service at mid-day. The team performance today is proof that
we're moving in the right direction with the development of the car,"
expressed a delighted Subaru team manager Richard Taylor. "We haven't
made huge gains in any one section of the car, but we have made small
progress in a few areas and it's great to see those changes having a
positive result."
Solberg ended the day with one special win, the short SS5 Markopoulo
around the Olympic equestrian center. Atkinson landed two wins on the
gravel route, besides SS3, he was the quickest on the fourth special,
the first time through the 15.20km Agia Sotira route.
"Not bad at all and it's great to be back in the fight! The small
improvements that the guys have done before the rally seem to working
and even though we're still lacking some speed I'm second overall and
I'm happy because I can feel that we are on the right track," said
a much delighted Solberg. "Tomorrow I really hope that we can get
the whole package working well again, I expect that we'll see a very
exciting fight on the stages."
With the ninth special canceled before the start of this year's event,
the competitors only had to race three stages in the afternoon. Before
the second time they contested the long 23.76km Thiva, Atkinson had
a gap of 3.1 seconds over his teammate and 4.2 seconds in front of
Gronholm.
After his brilliant drive of Thiva earlier, Atkinson nor Solberg were
expecting the problems they had. Solberg was fourth, losing 5.7 seconds
to the Finn while Atkinson sixth. Both reported handling issues that
they did not have in the morning runs.
"We kept trying today, that's for sure! We didn't have the best car
balance this afternoon compared to the morning - even though we didn't
change the set-up at the midday service - but we kept pushing as hard as
we could and we've come back to service still third overall," commented
Atkinson. "Of course it's good to be in such a strong position tonight,
but the top ten is so close it's crazy!
That was the open door for Gronholm. And it also allowed Citroen's two
drivers to gain the ground they lost earlier. Sebastien Loeb was shut
out of any stage wins today which is a rare occupance for the three-time
WRC champion. "I didn't drive particularly well and the stages were
covered in many places by a surprisingly thick top-coating of dust and
gravel. When it was like that, we practically didn't have any grip at
all," said the Frenchman.
Sitting fourth and out of first by 9.7 seconds, Loeb knows if all goes
well in his Citroen C4 tomorrow, he still has a chance to garner a
podium position, if not the victory in Greece. "Given that I wasn't
feeling totally confident, I didn't want to take any risks," he added.
"I still don't feel perfectly comfortable. We will need to further
fine-tune the set-up but the gaps are quite small despite the complex
day we have just been through," admitted Loeb. "Nothing is by any means
over yet and we will do our best to produce a good run on Leg 2 to try
and reverse the trend..."
The final eighth special was won by Dani Sordo who was pleased, at least
by the victory on the second run of Agia Sotira. "Everything went very
well, we didn't have the slightest problem with our Citroen C4 which
was very competitive throughout the day, both over the faster portions
and also on the much rougher stuff. I am pleased with my day and I
managed to stay concentrated and not make any mistakes. We succeeded in
setting times on a par with drivers who are far more used to competing
on gravel," commented the Spaniard who slotted sixth for the day.
Hirvonen ended fifth in the first leg, 10.3 seconds off his teammate's
time, but only 0.6 seconds adrift of Loeb and 0.4 seconds in front of
Sordo. After winning last night, the Ford crew had to go to work on the
gearbox.
"We had an interesting service early this morning because after last
night's stage I noticed a problem with the gearchange," said the younger
Finn. "The team replaced the hydraulic gearchange system in just 10
minutes before we left this morning, a job for which we would normally
allow 25 minutes. It was a fantastic effort but stressful for me
watching to see if they could do it in time."
The gap was close in the top eight, seventh belongs to Henning Solberg
in his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Focus privateer entry, 45.2 seconds off
Gronholm's top time. The elder of the Solberg brothers is 3.1 seconds
ahead of his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala.
Leg two tomorrow could be interesting as the racers take on eight more
specials, most are short ones in the hills, but they need to first one
could be a make or break situation: 48.88km Agii Theodori which they
repeat in the afternoon.
