Gigi survives crash into trees but his car doesn’t
Last updated 19:47, Thursday, 07 August 2008
ROUND nine of the World Rally Championship brought mixed fortunes for the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team.
Topping the Neste Oil Rally Finland time-sheets for the team was Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud who finished in a solid fifth overall.
Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin cruised into the finish ramp as the next best placed Stobart crew just one spot adrift of a point-scoring position in ninth.
Unfortunately for team-mates Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini their rally ended in a high-speed accident after rolling at 14.3 kilometres into stage 16 after slightly misjudging the pace of the road.
With their Ford Focus RS heavily damaged during the incident the pair were unable to restart the event and had to retire. Fortunately, both Galli and Bernacchini were uninjured.
Solberg’s great effort was not without troubles however when he experienced problems with the setup of his rear suspension due to heavy landings on both passes of the Surkee stage on Friday.
The Norwegian also picked up a 10-second penalty on Saturday after a mechanically-induced jump-start on the 20.09 kilometre Kakaristo 1 test.
Without much practice in his Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC07 over the summer break, 21-year-old Wilson struggled early on to find the right confidence on this ultra-fast event.
As the event rolled on so did the confidence as the youngster began setting some firm stage times and making full use of his soft compound Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyres on these high-speed tests.
This build in confidence was prevalent when he posted an amazing fourth fastest time on the 10.92 kilometre Hannula stage - three seconds quicker than rally leader Sébastien Loeb.
Galli said: “It has been a bitterly disappointing end for me. I was just trying to keep our position against Sordo and the accident happened on a tricky left-hand corner.
“My pace notes were slightly out and I ended up sliding into the ditch which then caused the car to roll at high speed into the trees.”
Solberg said: “We started the rally off really well and it was good to be on the podium after the first day.
“The car was working well and it was a fine performance as we had no pre-event testing so I had showed a fast pace right from the start.
“But we lost the feeling on day two and had to settle for fifth which isn’t too bad and at least it’s some more points, moving me up to seventh in the championship.”
And Wilson said: “This is a really tough rally and we have moved forward with some important setting changes for when the rally comes back here.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team principal Malcolm Wilson said he was delighted to see two Stobart cars in the top-10 of such a specialised event.
Wilson said: “Henning showed really good pace on day one but unfortunately lost his rhythm on the second day.
“But to his credit he still scored a very strong fifth on one of the fastest events in the WRC.
“Matthew has put in a really solid performance in terms of learning the event and getting the experience and he hasn’t made any mistakes.
“Some of his splits were really impressive and he showed some great pace on the final day when his confidence was higher.”
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