The 2007 Wales Rally GB, the final round of this year's World Rally Championship, got underway yesterday morning as competitors turned their attention to the traditional shakedown session for the final opportunity to test their cars before the start. The weather was surprisingly sunny as Citroën Sport's Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Martí set off for their first laps of the test stage situated 18km north of the service park which, for the first time, is situated on Swansea's seafront. The forest track twisted a 3.9km route through Penllergaer and gave crews a foretaste of the challenge that awaits them over the next three days.
"We probably won't see the sunshine again this weekend, but it was a good morning for us," reported Sébastien. "Grip was changeable under the trees and the surface switched from very muddy to much clearer, rocky portions. Our aim on this event is to sew up the title. If Marcus Grönholm wins, we will need to score four points, which is what you get for finishing fifth. It will be important to finish, so we won't be pushing our C4 WRC too hard. Our first two runs this morning confirmed that everything is OK with the car and called it a day quite early on."
Dani and Marc have an altogether different objective this weekend and the Spanish pair ran for longer this morning. "This morning's conditions were pretty representative of what we can expect in the Welsh forests," observed Dani. "The main difference was that big ruts began to form as the morning progressed and the insides of the corners started to cut up. We did two passes before returning to service where we made a few detail modifications to our C4. The next series of runs enabled us to check that this work took us in the right direction."
After shakedown, competitors will travel from Swansea to Cardiff for an autograph signing session and the ceremonial start in Cardiff's Cathays Park, in front of the City Hall, at 7.30pm. Cars will start the first leg tomorrow directly from the service park in Swansea.
* Leg 1 (Friday November 30): 306.80km, including 140.80km divided into 6 stages (3 different).
Cars leave the service park at 09.10. SS1 (Port Talbot 1, 17.41km), SS2 (Resolfen 1, 25.08km) and SS3 (Rheola 1, 27.91km). Regroup (12.52, 15 minutes). Service A (13.07, 30 minutes). SS4 (Port Talbot 2) and SS5 (Resolfen 2). Regroup in Glynneath (15.43, 17 minutes). SS6 (Rheola 2). Service B (17.36, 45 minutes). Last car due into parc ferme at 21.00.
