2004 FIA Junior World Rally Championship
Round 6 - Rally of Italy-Sardinia (30 September-03 October)
Friday 01 October 2004 - Leg 1

SUZUKIS SET THE PACE IN SARDINIA

Suzuki drivers have been setting the pace over the opening day of the all-new Rally d'Italia-Sardinia, round six of the Junior World Rally Championship.

Urmo Aava very fast on the Sardinian gravel

The Rally d'Italia-Sardinia replaces the asphalt of Sanremo as Italy's round of the championship. The brand new event uses gravel stages to the north east of the island, with each day's start and finish in the millionaire's resort of Porto Cervo. The stages are quite varied and very demanding, with a wide range of speeds and surfaces, while the weather remained warm and dry throughout the opening leg's action. Today's route consisted of six challenging stages, made up of two loops of three with a service halt at Olbia in between. The total competitive distance was 156km.

Suzuki Ignis number 31 - Mirco Baldacci (RSM)/Giovanni Bernacchini (I)
5th after leg one
2 fastest stage times

Mirco comes from the principality of San Marino, but the Rally d'Italia-Sardinia is the closest he gets to a home event. In the past he has competed on Sardinia's Costa Smeralda Rally, which uses stages that are similar in character to this event. Mirco enjoyed massive local support, and he used it to good effect to ensure a clean and rapid run through the stages.

He said: "I've led so many events this year but not been able to finish, so I want my home rally to be very different! The car was very good today, we had no mechanical problems at all. The only thing which wasn't so good for us was catching a slower car in front of us on the final stage this afternoon. We had to follow the car for about 10km, which dropped me about 40 seconds. Tyre wear is going to be an important factor on this rally, so I'm quite pleased that I have been able to save two of my tyres to use tomorrow."

Suzuki Ignis number 33 - Guy Wilks (GB)/Phil Pugh (GB)
4th after leg one

Guy came into the Rally d'Italia-Sardinia in the lead of the Junior World Rally Championship - but only by a slender two points from Renault driver Nicolas Bernardi. His aim was to choose the right compromise between speed and safety: but he ended up pushing to the maximum all day. He felt there was something amiss with the car's rear suspension this morning, but an adjustment at lunchtime service in Olbia ensured he was happy with the car through the afternoon.

He said: "The gravel of Sardinia is our best opportunity to push for the maximum points possible, so that was our aim today. We're not thinking about the championship at all, we're just getting on with the driving. The Focus WRC ahead of us had a power steering problem for the last two stages of the day, which meant we were able to catch him with quite a lot of the stage left. The dust was terrible in places, we had to back off a lot of the time. The end of that last stage was so twisty, the power steering on our car started to overheat."

Suzuki Ignis number 35 - Kosti Katajamaki (FIN)/Timo Alanne (FIN)
6th after leg one

Kosti has finished on the podium for the last three JWRC events and his excellent consistency has earned him a shot at the championship title. However, he's equally keen to score his first win for Suzuki, so he started the Rally d'Italia-Sardinia at an excellent pace. The team decided to change the front axle at service as the Finn was complaining about handling problems. Unfortunately for him, the job took longer than expected and he dropped one minute of road penalties. His afternoon was spoiled by a puncture in SS4 and a bent rear beam on the penultimate stage of the day.

He said: "I think this rally was a big surprise for everyone, but it's the sort of event I like: the gravel is fast and flowing and the whole thing is a real challenge. I hit some big, big rock in the middle of stage four, which was where I got the puncture. It was another rock on the last stage which bent the beam. The car felt really nervous after we had damaged the beam - it was very hard to know what it was going to do. With the problem this morning and then not such a good afternoon, we haven't enjoyed today so much."

Suzuki Ignis number 45 - Per-Gunnar Andersson (S)/Jonas Andersson (S)
2nd after leg one

P-G has won two Junior World Championship rallies this year, marking himself out as a real title contender. After a non-finish in Britain, when a stray rock holed a brake pipe, the young Swede was determined to come to Sardinia challenging for victory. He was as good as his word and ended leg one just 13.3s off the lead of the Junior World Rally Championship category.

He said: "I wanted to win, but I was also keen to use a tactic which has worked for me in the past: to start off at a comfortable pace and then to adjust it to whatever is needed. The power steering wasn't quite right through the final stage of the day, I was getting a lot of kick back through the wheel, which was pretty hard on the arms. Apart from that, the rest of the day has been very good."

Monster Sport Europe team manager Risto Laine commented: "It's been a tough and slightly strange day, nobody really knew what to expect from this rally and these stages, but the cars have performed very well today. Urmo has done a fantastic job and we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm sure it's going to be another very close fight. "

Suzuki Ignis number 43 - Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN)/Mika Anttilla (FIN)
Retired on leg one

Jari-Matti Latvala, on only his third event with Suzuki from JM Engineering, slid off the road early on leg one. He was unable to continue in the rally.

He said: "It is a very disappointing and early end to this rally. The stages looked interesting and I had been looking forward to the event."

Suzuki Ignis number 48 - Conrad Rautenbach (ZIM)/Marc Jones (GB)
15th after leg one

Conrad was making his debut in a Tean Birkbeck-run Ignis, after switching from another manufacturer.

He said: "It's always an interesting experience learning a new car. My priority is to learn about the car rather than pushing to the maximum. There's still a long way to go and I've got more to find out about the Ignis."

Suzuki Ignis number 32 - Urmo Aava (EE)/Kuldar Sikk (EE)
1st after leg one
1 fastest stage time

Urmo enjoyed a rapid and problem-free run through the first tough day of Sardinian stages to lead the JWRC category tonight. He was planning a gearbox change in service at the end of the leg after the transmission had started sticking.

He said: "The car has run very well today. The only problem for us - like the rest of the crews - is the wear of tyres. The weather has been so warm, we are using tyres much quicker than we thought we would. I think maybe the FIA (world motorsport's governing body) should make some changes to the regulations to allow us to change the tyres more often or give us more tyres. It was really quite dangerous driving like this in the end."

Tomorrow the drivers will tackle six more classic stages over the demanding gravel of Sardinia. The action consists once more of a repeated loop of three stages, with central service in Olbia halfway through. Leg two comprises a total of 142.52 competitive kilometres.

Suzuki Ignis driver Urmo Aava opened up a 13.3-second lead over PG Andersson on leg one's six stages. Mirco Baldacci led from the start until SS4, when he was passed by the Estonian. Renault's Nicolas Bernardi is third, with Guy Wilks fourth and Baldacci an overnight fifth.

1 Urmo Aava (Suzuki Ignis 03) 2h11m40.6s
2 P-G Andersson (Suzuki Ignis) +13.3s
3 Nicolas Bernardi (Renault Clio) +16.2s
4 Guy Wilks (Suzuki Ignis) + 34.6s
5 Mirco Baldacci (Suzuki Ignis) +39.3s
6 Kosti Katajamaki (Suzuki Ignis) +3m16.2s
7 Larry Cols (Renault Clio) +3m31.0s
8 Luca Cecchettini (Renault Clio) +3m39.1s

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