RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA
Competing in the Qatar World Rally Teams Citron DS3 WRC, Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul finished Rally Italia outside the points. After going off on day two, the Belgian still feel that they have learned a great deal about the Sardinian stages. Driving a DS3 WRC prepared by Citron Racing Technologies, the Italian crew of Luca Pedersoli and Matteo Romano finished in tenth place overall.
Renowned for featuring stages that are often rocky and narrow, Rally Italia Sardegna was made even more difficult thisyear by the variable weather conditions, which forced the competitors to keep switching between soft and hard MichelinLatitude Cross tyres.
After just missing out on a place on the podium in Alsace, Thierry Neuville had hopes of going one better here. Therally got underway on Thursday evening with two runs on a stage of around thirty kilometres. Running in tenthposition, the Belgian enjoyed a very clean racing line: That helped us to get among the front-runners. I was prettycautious on SS1 and then I pushed a bit harder on the second run. Although I was slightly hampered by the fadinglight, I set a fairly good time.
Having ended Thursday in fourth overall, Thierry made a less impressive start to the second day. I made a mistake onSS3. I wasn't sufficiently focussed and I misinterpreted one of the pace notes. We clipped the verge and the car endedup lying on its side. We managed to turn it back over with some help from two stewards, but I burned my hand in theprocess.
After losing six minutes as a result of the incident, Thierry retired for the day: The engine had lost a lot of oil when thecar was on its side, so we felt it was better not to take any risks and avoid breaking it altogether.
After the mechanics and the doctors took care of the DS3 WRC and Thierrys fingers respectively, the Qatar WorldRally Team were able to return to the action on Saturday morning. First of all, I must thank the doctors, becausewithout them I wouldnt have been able to get back in the car. We learned a lot today. This morning, we were one ofthe first crews on the road and there was a lot of sweeping, said Thierry. We worked a lot on the set-up to adapt thecar to the conditions. I felt that I made clear progress on the second loop; we set three top 5 times in the afternoon.Thierry made it to the end of the rally after the two short stages making up Sundays final leg. He picked up one WorldChampionship point by finishing third in the Power Stage. Obviously, the final outcome isnt what I was hoping for,but I can only blame myself for that, he concluded. Like after every rally, I feel slightly better equipped for the future.I really need to finish the season on a high note.
Competing in a Citron DS3 WRC, the Italian Luca Pedersoli collected the point for tenth place. It was a great honourto be able to drive such a fantastic car, remarked the 2004 European Championship runner-up. The weekend wasdifficult for several reasons: I hadn't driven on gravel for several years, I had virtually no experience of the carbeforehand and Im not used to only doing two runs in recce. I wasnt very quick, but I kept out of trouble and I'mpleased to have made it to the end without making any mistakes. Finishing in the top 10 is a great bonus!
OVERALL STANDINGS1 Hirvonen / Lehtinen Citron DS3 WRC 3:23:54.92 Novikov / Minor Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1:20.63 Tnak / Sikk Ford Fiesta RS WRC +2:21.14 stberg / Andersson Ford Fiesta RS WRC +3:42.95 Ogier / Ingrassia Skoda Fabia S2000 +4:27.56 Atkinson / Prvot Mini JCW WRC +5:22.27 Mikkelsen / Floene Skoda Fabia S2000 +6:12.58 Prokop / Hrza Ford Fiesta RS WRC +9:29.39 Solberg / Patterson Ford Fiesta RS WRC +9:52.310 Pedersoli / Romano Citron DS3 WRC +20:35.618 Neuville / Gilsoul Citron DS3 WRC +31:36.8
