Sun May 1, 2005

 Peugeot get their cars to the finish Peugeot driver Marcus Gronholm has been able to rise to the magnificent challenge of moving from the bottom of the field to third place overall on the Rally d'Italia-Sardinia. On a tense final day, he pressured the Mitsubishi of his key rival Harri Rovanpera into making a mist...

 Loeb Wins in Sardinia Sébastien Loeb dominated the Italian round of the World Rally Championship at the weekend (29 April - 1 May), guiding their Citroen Xsara to victory over Petter Solberg by nearly a minute and in the process taking over the lead in the World Rally Championship from the Subaru driv...

 Promising Performance from 05WRC

 Toni and Kresta Fifth and Sixth

 Petter takes second to the finish

 Tuohino takes a point for Skoda

NEWS JUST IN

 I end - Loeb wins... @ 11:02 AM - ...or more like he happened to have the least problems. Solberg comes 2nd for having turbo, clutch and brake problems. Grönholm comes 3rd for losing 2min with a roll... Unofficial provisional end results: 1 Loeb 4h06m33s7 2 Solberg +59s6 3 Grönholm +3m07s3 4 Märtin +4m12s3 5 Gardemeister +8m29s3 6 Kresta +9m29s2 7 Warmbold +9m59s8 8 Pykälistö +10m21s2 9 Stohl +10m35s6 10 Higgins +12m21s1

 Italy other leg3 action @ 11:00 AM - SS12: Galli retires (gearbox) for the 3rd time in 1 rally! Schwarz excluded. SS13/14: Rovanperä being the estimated 256th case to hit suspension problems this weekend, he retires before SS14. SS15/16: Higgins drops outside the points with problems. JWRC: Only 2 cars complete all stages with the C2 of Daniel Sordo and Marc Marti(!) winning.

 I SS16 - one more to go @ 10:49 AM - Higgins drops time with problems. Unofficial results after SS16: 1 Loeb 3h56m04s4 2 Solberg +55s8 3 Grönholm +3m13s3 4 Märtin +4m07s3 5 Gardemeister +8m30s 6 Kresta +9m17s7 7 Warmbold +9m48s4 8 Pykälistö +10m02s9 9 Stohl +10m30s1 10 Higgins +11m54s2

 I SS14 - all positions sorted @ 08:41 AM - Rovanperä being the 256th case to hit suspension problems this weekend, he retires. Unofficial results after SS14: 1 Loeb 3h40m17s4 2 Solberg +1m08s9 3 Rovanperä +3m17s1 4 Grönholm +4m05s2 5 Märtin +8m30s2 6 Gardemeister +8m56s6 7 Kresta +8m58s2 8 Higgins +9m34s4 9 Warmbold +9m52s3 10 Pykälistö +10m15s1

 I SS13 - Grönholm takes 3rd, just @ 08:23 AM - Unofficial results after SS13: 1 Loeb 3h32m34s 2 Solberg +1m11s6 3 Grönholm +3m19s1 4 Rovanperä +3m19s2 5 Märtin +4m04s1 6 Gardemeister +8m22s6 7 Kresta +8m42s8 8 Higgins +8m45s6 9 Warmbold +9m24s2 10 Pykälistö +9m41s5

 I SS12 - Last leg underway @ 07:33 AM - Galli retires (gearbox) for the 3rd time in 1 rally! Unofficial results after SS12: 1 Loeb 3h24m16s3 2 Solberg +1m14s5 3 Rovanperä +3m07s6 4 Grönholm +3m23s8 5 Märtin +3m58s 6 Gardemeister +8m15s 7 Kresta +8m26s5 8 Higgins +8m29s 9 Warmbold +9m06s5 10 Pykälistö +9m26s7

Sat April 30, 2005

 Loeb Untouchable at the top Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena succeeded in controlling from in front throughout Leg 2 and their efforts have seen them extend their cushion over Petter Solberg from 31.7s this morning to 55.2s tonight. Meanwhile, François Duval and Stéphane Prévot were able to re-start today th...

 Disappointing 2nd day for Skoda Škoda Motorsport World Rally Team drivers Janne Tuohino and Armin Schwarz retired from day two of Rally Italia-Sardinia although, under the 2005 regulations, they remain classified in 12th and 16th places respectively this evening and Janne is still in the championship points pos...

NEWS JUST IN

 I leg2 - Loeb by a minute @ 05:15 PM - And yet more lottery rally victims, this time end of road for Gardemeister (oil pressure) and Tuohino (off) and Johannson (suspension) and Sarrazin (transmission) and.... Unofficial results after leg2: 1 Loeb 3h13m44s7 2 Solberg +55s2 3 Rovanperä +3m01s4 4 Grönholm +3m14s6 5 Märtin +3m20s5 6 Higgins +7m23s8 7 Kresta +7m37s6 8 Pykälistö +8m23s9 9 Warmbold +8m34s4 10 Stohl +8m54s7

 I SS10 - close gaps for 3rd place @ 04:09 PM - The gap between places 3-4-5-6 is onle 14 seconds! But they can't really fight for positions, first of all the cars have to stay in one piece. Victims of this stage: Henning Solberg, Armin Schwarz... basically no-one left in JWRC either. Unofficial results after SS10: 1 Loeb 2h46m07s3 2 Solberg +35s6 3 Rovanperä +2m40s6 4 Märtin +2m45s4 5 Gardemeister +2m49s 6 Grönholm +2m53s8 7 Higgins +5m58s6 8 Kresta +6m14s5 9 Johansson +6m40s7 10 Pykälistö +6m42s7

 I SS8 - more rough @ 11:32 AM - And to make it all cheaper we do souprally and give Atkinson (suspension) and Galli (no fuel pressure) the chance to wreck and retire their cars for the 2nd time in 1 rally. Both the OMV Citroens drop severe time too. Unofficial results after SS8: 1 Loeb 2h22m49s7 2 Solberg +36s2 3 Rovanperä +2m11s9 4 Märtin +2m22s4 5 Gardemeister +2m34s9 6 Grönholm +2m37s1 7 H Solberg +4m41s2 8 Higgins +5m03s5 9 Schwarz +5m13s3 10 Kresta +5m31s5

 I SS7 - rough lottery day @ 09:30 AM - Carlsson and sensationally 3rd yesterday Hirvonen have stopped on the stage with suspected suspension damage. Pons crashed and is blocking the stage. And this was supposed to be the smoothest stage of the day. Unofficial results after SS7: 1 Loeb 1h54m38s2 2 Solberg +38s7 3 Rovanperä +1m37s3 4 Gardemeister +1m49s9 5 Märtin +1m52s 6 Grönholm +2m21s2 7 Pykälistö +3m20s8 8 Schwarz +3m35s4 9 Kresta +3m41s7 10 H Solberg +3m45s3

Fri April 29, 2005

 Loeb with firm lead on leg 1 It's never over until the finish line has been crossed, and that adage proved true once again today when Citroën's hopes of a close formation finish in Sardinia were dashed in a matter of seconds on SS5 (‘Crastazza 2'). Minutes previously, the team's two Xsara WRCs ha...

 Rovanpera 4th - Leg 1, Gali Out The Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 crew of Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen hold a fine fourth overall at the end of the opening leg of Rally Italia Sardinia, round five of the FIA World Rally Championship. Team-mates "Gigi" Galli and Guido D’Amore were on the pace from the outset ...

 Peugeot Ups and Downs Marcus Gronholm, who picked hard tyres, surprised all his rivals by setting the quickest time over the opening stage which was nearly 30 kilometres long. His compatriot Harri Rovanpera, who set second fastest time, was 9 seconds behind followed by Petter Solberg and Sebastien Loe...

 Solberg Holds Second after Leg 1 Subaru driver Petter Solberg holds second place on Rally Italia Sardinia tonight after a gruelling day of competition. Despite running first on the road, the Norwegian delivered a string of competitive times aboard his Subaru Impreza WRC2005 to end the day 31 seconds behind the l...

 Gardemeister recovers to 5th Two Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars held top five positions after a dramatic first day of the Rally Italia Sardinia. BP-Ford World Rally Team's Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen staged a tremendous fightback up the leaderboard after delays this morning to end the leg in fif...

 Positive 1st day for Skoda Škoda Motorsport World Rally Team drivers Armin Schwarz and Janne Tuohino hold eighth and 15th places respectively after the opening day of Rally Italia-Sardinia, the fifth round of the 2005 World Rally Championship. Today’s opening leg was run under clear blue skies and in tempe...

NEWS JUST IN

 I leg1 - Loeb clear @ 04:08 PM - Unofficial results after leg1: 1 Loeb 1h34m51s3 2 Solberg +31s7 3 Hirvonen +59s 4 Rovanperä +1m17s7 5 Gardemeister +1m33s8 6 Märtin +1m34s5 7 Grönholm +2m11s9 8 Schwarz +2m16s3 9 Pykälistö +2m21s8 10 Stohl +2m28s1

 I SS5 - Crastazza stage asking its toll @ 03:24 PM - Atkinson retired with suspension problems, Galli delayed for similar problem, Duval retired after rolling. Unofficial results after SS5: 1 Loeb 1h22m27s7 2 Solberg +25s7 3 Hirvonen +42s3 4 Rovanperä +54s2 5 Märtin +1m12s7 6 Gardemeister +1m21s3 7 Schwarz +1m27s8 8 Grönholm +1m45s1 9 Carlsson +2m01s1 10 Kresta +2m04s4

 I SS4 - Grönholm back in shape @ 02:31 PM - ... winning SS4 following his major SS3 roll. Unofficial results after SS4: 1 Loeb 1h09m32s2 2 Duval +9s1 3 Solberg +11s7 4 Hirvonen +25s 5 Rovanperä +30s1 6 Schwarz +49s4 7 Märtin +50s 8 Atkinson +50s8 9 Galli +51s9 10 Gardemeister +1m06s4

 I SS3 - Grönholm rolls, as usual @ 10:29 AM - This means within 2 stages Loeb moves from 9th to 1st, Grönholm from 1st to 22nd. Unofficial results after SS3: 1 Loeb 48m14s3 2 Hirvonen +7s9 3 Solberg +8s7 4 Duval +9s1 5 Atkinson +9s9 6 Rovanperä +22s5 7 Schwarz +23s5 8 Märtin +33s3 9 Galli +37s9 10 Carlsson +40s8

 I SS2 - Loeb wins the stage @ 09:59 AM - Unofficial results after SS2: 1 Grönholm 35m15s9 2 Loeb +16s6 3 Atkinson +16s4 4 Duval +19s1 5 Hirvonen +19s6 6 Solberg +21s8 7 Rovanperä +24s1 8 Schwarz +27s6 =9 Märtin +37s9 =9 Carlsson +37s9

 I SS1 - rocky start @ 08:52 AM - With Toni Gardemeister first to hit rock damage but still running. Strong times by Mitsubishi. Atkinson as quick as Solberg. Unofficial results after SS1: 1 Grönholm 21m47s9 2 Rovanperä +9s =3 Solberg +10s1 =3 Atkinson +10s1 5 Galli +12s8 6 Duval +17s 7 Schwarz +17s9 8 Hirvonen +18s3 9 Loeb +19s8 10 Higgins +20s8

Wed April 27, 2005

 Questions to the Citroen Team Questions to Guy Fréquelin… Rally New Zealand brought a smile back to your face… "How could I not have been pleased? The team has succeeded in finding the key to success in New Zealand. It was one of the objectives I had set it and everyone dearly wanted to achieve i...

 Debut Trip to Sardinia for Lancer WRC After the long haul to México and New Zealand, the FIA World Rally Championship returns to Europe for the first of four events hosted in the Mediterranean. Rally Italia is hosted on the diverse south-westerly island of Sardinia, immediately south of Corsica where the teams will h...

 Lack of Experience No Italian Hinderance BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen and team-mates Roman Kresta and Jan Možný face a steep learning curve as Sardinia's gravel roads signal the FIA World Rally Championship's return to Europe after two flyaway rounds. However, their lack o...

 Citroen Aim to Repeat Kiwi Success Back in Europe after its successful trip to New Zealand, World Champions Citroën and Sébastien Loeb will aim for their third win of the season in Sardinia and the Italian round of the world rally Championship this weekend (April 28 - 1 May 2005), but despite a podium finish last ...

 Subaru Trio on Sardinia Subaru will take a three-car team to Sardinia. The latest specification Impreza WRC2005's will be driven by Petter Solberg (co-driven by Phil Mills), Chris Atkinson (co-driven by Glenn MacNeall) and Stéphane Sarrazin (co-driven by Denis Giraudet). After winning two of the firs...