2004 FIA Junior World Rally Championship
Round 6 – Rally of Italy-Sardinia (30 September-03 October)
Saturday 02 October 2004 - Leg 2

SUZUKIS ON TRACK IN SARDINIA!

Leg two of the Rally d'Italia (the penultimate round of the Junior World Rally Championship) has seen another successful day for Suzuki. The Ignis has been at the sharp end of the leader board and making history today, with P-G Andersson taking the 1600cc Suzuki into the top ten of the overall World Rally Championship round for the first time.

P-G Andersson performed very strong today

The second day of the Rally d'Italia-Sardinia was once again characterised by fast and flowing gravel roads over some of the most spectacular scenery on the island. Temperatures remained dry and warm over the six classic gravel stages, and the crews returned to parc ferme in Porto Cervo having completed a total competitive distance of 306.4 competitive kilometres so far.

Suzuki Ignis number 31 - Mirco Baldacci (RSM)/Giovanni Bernacchini (I)
2nd after leg two
1 fastest stage time

Mirco set out with victory on his home event in mind, and continued the excellent pace he had shown on the opening leg. His Ignis was entirely reliable throughout the day, allowing him to power his way from fifth this morning and into second place at the end of the leg.

He said: "Today has been another good day. I've really enjoyed myself, with a lot of support from the home crowd and the car has felt fantastic. Some of the stages have been very rough in places, but I feel like I am driving well. Tomorrow I want to drive the same and try to catch P-G."

Suzuki Ignis number 33 - Guy Wilks (GB)/Phil Pugh (GB)
3rd after leg two
1 fastest stage time

Championship leader Guy Wilks enjoyed another perfectly-judged run through the Sardinian stages today, and is poised for another fine performance on the final leg tomorrow. Guy's only problem today has been catching the dust of the competitors ahead on the morning loop of three stages. He goes into the final day in third place, but with a comfortable advantage over fourth-placed Kosti Katajamaki.

He said: "The dust was really bad on the first stage this morning. Urmo had a problem with his car, Nicolas Bernardi caught him and then we caught Nicolas – so we had dust from two cars! In stage nine it was the same again as we caught Marcus Gronholm driving slowly, we dropped less time then though, only about seven seconds. Then we stalled the engine in a tight hairpin. This afternoon we had even more problems catching Bernardi's dust."

Suzuki Ignis number 35 - Kosti Katajamaki (FIN)/Timo Alanne (FIN)
4th after leg two
3 fastest stage times

Kosti loves fast and varied gravel events like Sardinia, and this showed in his confident progress. He started the day sixth and climbed one position through today's seven stages. Kosti showed tremendous pace through the morning, setting fastest time on both of the long stages run before the crews returned to Olbia for lunchtime service.

He said: "I was always looking forward to this rally a lot, and I've had fun. Today was better than yesterday – everything is working like it should be today. Okay, we had some problems with the dust, but I think everybody is having a situation like this. When the dust is heavy, it's hard to pick out a braking point – but we have managed well and the car is running very well."

Suzuki Ignis number 45 - Per-Gunnar Andersson (S)/Jonas Andersson (S)
1st after leg two
1 fastest stage times

P-G is one of the least experienced drivers on the World Rally Championship but he did not show it with a remarkable run through today's stages. He steered clear of unnecessary risks to move into the lead of the top of the JWRC standings. The Swedish driver was enjoying a double celebration at the end of leg two, however, as he not only leads the 1600cc category, but he is also in the top 10 of the overall Rally Italia.

He said: "My objective today was to do the same as I had done yesterday. I was hoping to catch Urmo in the stages, but didn't expect it to happen so quickly. He had a puncture and we passed him in the first stage this morning. On that stage we did make a small mistake, though. I heard the pace note call telling me about a right-hand corner coming up. I turned too early for the corner and went off the road. The car was stuck on top of a rock, but luckily it came down quite quickly. I think we lost about 25s. It's been very slippery today, but we have been driving carefully and quickly – we need to do the same tomorrow."

Monster Sport Europe team manager Risto Laine commented: "It's been a fantastic day for the Suzukis out on the stages today. It was a shame for Urmo to have his puncture this morning, but P-G was straight into the lead, with Mirco right behind him. The cars have run very well today, despite some slippery and very tricky conditions. The bonus today is the top ten position for P-G at the end of the leg – that's quite amazing for a 1600cc car!"

Suzuki Ignis number 48 - Conrad Rautenbach (ZIM)/Marc Jones (GB)
Retired on leg two

Conrad continued to learn the Ignis on his first outing in the car. He came through the day's opening test, but failed to make it to the end of SS8 after a clutch problem on the car.

He said: "The car felt really good this morning, but then we had a problem with the clutch. It was a real shame not to get through the stage, I felt I was getting to know the car and was starting to enjoy the stages more and more."

Suzuki Ignis number 32 - Urmo Aava (EE)/Kuldar Sikk (EE)
6th after leg two

Urmo started the second leg of Rally Italia in the lead of the JWRC standings. Unfortunately he ended it further down the field in sixth place after stopping to change a puncture on the opening stage of the day and some brake problems in the afternoon. He would spend the rest of the leg battling back to try and make time up against his rivals.

The Estonian said: "This rally is certainly proving to be a tough challenge. I got the puncture on front-right hand side of the car. I don't remember hitting anything big, but there were so many rocks out there in the road. The tyre went straight down, so I knew we had to stop and change it. Because we had put one of our new tyres on the front, we then had to drive sensibly through the shorter next stage to make sure we could save some grip for the long third stage of the day. This afternoon, on the last stage, we only had rear brakes which made it quite interesting!"

The final leg of the rally gets underway at 0700 (CET) from Porto Cervo, with six more spectacular stages that will decide the Junior World Rally Championship winner on the inaugural Rally d'Italia-Sardinia. The winner is scheduled to spray the champagne at 1645.

Leg one leader Urmo Aava was forced to relinquish his lead, stopping to change a puncture aboard his 2003-specification Ignis on the first stage of the day. That allowed P-G Andersson to move his Suzuki into the lead, with Mirco Baldacci and Guy Wilks ensuring it was a clean sweep of the JWRC podium positions for the Ignis at the end of Saturday's action. Renault driver Nicolas Bernardi slipped down the leaderboard when he suffered a puncture and suspension trouble aboard his Clio, damaging his JWRC title chances.

1 P-G Andersson (Suzuki Ignis) 4h07m20.7s
2 Mirco Baldacci (Suzuki Ignis) +42.8s
3 Guy Wilks (Suzuki Ignis) +1m38.6s
4 Kosti Katajamaki (Suzuki Ignis) +3m20.8s
5 Larry Cols (Renault Clio) +3m52.0s
6 Urmo Aava (Suzuki Ignis) +5m21.9s
7 Nicolas Bernardi (Renault Clio) +5m46.7s
8 Kris Meeke (Opel Corsa) +8m53.1s

Position Chart>>

>>>TOP