Photo: ©willyweyens-rallyworld
Olbia, 23 May 2009
PRESS RELEASE #3 – RALLY ITALY – DAY TWO (SATURDAY)
* KNAF Talent First Team Holland: still hoping for J-WRC points for Hans Weijs…
* Hans Weijs jr.: running into problems twice during well driven second day…
Rally Italy looks like getting really tough since even reigning world champion Sébastien Loeb (puncture) and his Spanish Citroën team mate Dani Sordo (turbo) hitting trouble! Almost every single team had its moments in the rally so far. With again very high temperatures throughout the day and a burning sun in a blue sky it became another ‘hot’ day – with a very early start and some of the longest and toughest stages men and machine were suffering!
Unfortunately also Hans Weijs junior and his co-driver Bjorn Degandt did have their problems. But because also many of their J-WRC competitors did not have a faultless day the Dutch KNAF Talent First Team Holland crew is
still in fifth place in the junior classification – however with a big gap to the team in front of them, French Suzuki-driver Yoann Bonato.
It is still going to be an interesting final day of Rally Italy, both in the J-WRC as well as in the WRC, where the top-4 teams are within just over one minute! Kevin Abbring tried to entertain himself today as a spectator, but he’d rather be on the stages in his Renault Clio!
Hans Weijs junior
During the opening 3 stages of the day Hans Weijs complained about a lack of grip: “The set-up just is not right,” said Weijs at the service halt over lunch in Olbia. His mechanics therefore changed the dampers on his Citroën C2 Super1600 and during the First stage in the afternoon it looked that the handling of the car had improved: “We had better grip indeed, but on the second stage it went all wrong; this morning we already lost 40 seconds when we went of this same stage and this afternoon at the jump our rear bonnet came loose – resulting in a lot of dust in the car!” Bjorn Degandt added: “But that was not all; we than had a puncture (rear right), which we had to change and a few kilometers down the stage we had another puncture (front left) and we had to stop again…. It cost us close to 4 minutes and we dropped back from 4th to 5th!” On the final stage of the day Weijs had hoped
to regain of his lost time, but because of the dust both Degandt and Weijs had a troubled view, which prevented them from attacking. “The dust is everywhere,” commented a very disappointed KNAF Talent First Team Holland driver.
Rally Italy
The Finnish Ford-drivers Latvala (1st) and Hirvonen (2nd) did not encounter too many problems and had a clean drive to strengthen their positions. Petter Solberg took advantage of the problems of Loeb, but also had a strong peformance with his older and privately entered Citroën Xsara! In J-WRC Italian hero Alessandro Bettega lost the lead when he went off. Suzuki-driver Michal Kosciuszko (Poland) came in the lead and although the Czech driver Martin Prokop (Citroën) was quickest on four of the six stages he did not manage to get any closer, since he got penalized twice for being late at a time control! Third place is now for German Aaron Burkart (Suzuki).
Sunday the final day of Rally Italy will feature a loop of 2 stages that will be run twice plus one other stage, totaling 86,18 kms. The finish of the rally will be in the village of Porto Cervo at 2.15 pm.
Photos: ©willyweyens-rallyworld
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- KNAF Talent First Team Holland: Disappointing opening day in Finland…
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