Not much has changed at the top of the results table at the end of the day, but there’s been quite a bit movement in the middle, and some big news for Subaru. First, Petter Solberg was forced to retire (from the rally) after SS6 (the final stage of the day) when his Impreza lost fuel pressure 1.5km from the service park. In a vain effort to get his car to the service within the allotted time, Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills attempted to push the Subaru to service, but failed to make it in time. While this will hamper Solberg’s championship campaign, it won’t put an end to it, since even with a win, Sebastien Loeb would only pull two points ahead.
Loeb does still lead the rally, taking four of six stage wins on the day. He leads Marrko Martin by just over 30 seconds, and Martin has a 20 second cushion over Marcus Gronholm. Gronholm has all but conceded the rally (and the championship) but saying the Peugeot 206 has fallen behind the Ford Focus and Citroen Xsara. Gilles Panizzi (holding a disappointing sixth place) confirmed Gronholm’s observations, saying if he held today’s pace last year, he would have won by 5 minutes. Instead, Panizzi is just hoping to finish in the points, nearly a minute and half behind Loeb.
Carlos Sainz is keeping his title aspirations alive, holding fourth place at the moment after a fine run on SS6. Francois Duval is also putting together a nice drive for Ford, currently holding fifth place. If Duval can keep it together over the next two days, it should be a good rally for Ford, and they can reclaim third place in the maker’s championship from Subaru. Speaking of whom, Tommi Makinen is trying to finish in the points, currently holding 8th place. Richard Burns will drop in the championship standings, as he is having a terrible time of it at the moment, currently three minutes off the leaders’ pace.
Tomorrow should be an exciting, with two long, 56km stages to challenge the leaders. Those stages are long enough to have effect on the leaderboard, and no doubt Martin and Loeb will be pushing the pace.
Posted on 3 October 2003