After taking the lead of the all-new WRC Rally Italia Sardinia on stage one, Subaru's Petter Solberg held his advantage all day to end the Leg more than thirty seconds ahead of second placed Markko Martin. Delivering a confident and well-paced drive aboard his Subaru Impreza WRC2004, the reigning World Champion scored three stage wins and ends the day excellently positioned ahead of Leg two.
After making a promising start to the event and setting some competitive stage times, Mikko Hirvonen retired after a gearbox oil leak. Taking advantage of the WRC re-start regulations, Mikko will re-join Petter on the stages tomorrow.
Petter Solberg"Not bad actually, it's working very well. I pushed quite hard earlier on, perhaps a bit too hard in places, but we made a good tyre choice this morning, and the car has a lot of traction when it's slippery. I must say I'm enjoying the stages more than I thought I would, you have to drive very precisely and use the throttle a lot to keep the car in the correct line, it reminded me a bit of my rallycross days in fact. I'm pleased with the position so far, but on this rally 30 seconds is really nothing at all, tomorrow is difficult, and Sunday even more difficult, so of course I'll keep pushing to try and increase the gap."
Mikko Hirvonen"It's really disappointing, but I tried my best. The event started quite well and the second and third stages weren't too bad, although I had a small overheating problem. But, at the end of the third stage (SS3), I lost pressure from the gear change system when there was an oil leak. The car came out of gear so I got out my tools, got under the car and managed to engage second gear manually. I started driving again, but it kept jumping back out of gear. I repeated this process several times, but in the end I just ran out of time. It's disappointing to retire, but least I still drove all of today's stages once. I'm glad I'm able to restart tomorrow and get more experience."
David Lapworth, Team Principal"The rally has been every bit as difficult as we'd expected, but it's very satisfying to see Petter with a relatively good lead at the end of the first day. His recent run of good form on gravel seems to be continuing and his confidence is high. Tyre choice has been a critical factor today, but so too has the way in which Petter has made the best use of the tyres he has. It's a difficult compromise but Petter has done a very good job. Having got off to such a good start, it's a shame for Mikko that his rally ended so soon. He'll now use the re-entry system on Saturday and Sunday to show what he can do."
Leg two started at 0630hrs this morning when the first car left Porto Cervo parc ferme and traveled 31km to Olbia. Following a 10-minute morning service, crews will contest a loop of three stages, south west of the service park, before returning for a 20-minute service. This will be followed by a single pass through the short Lovia Avra stage, before a repeat of the morning's three stages. The first stage (SS7) starts at 0854hrs and the last (SS13) at 1643hrs.
