Petter Solberg built on his strong start in the Cyprus Rally as he led the way again in SS2 with Sébastien Loeb hot on his heels.
Petter Solberg built on his strong start in the Cyprus Rally as he led the way again in SS2 with Sébastien Loeb hot on his heels.
Marcus Gronholm completed the top three, with less than two seconds separating him from the Norwegian Solberg.
Solberg hammered his Subaru Impreza WRC2004 through the challenging 15km Kourdali-Asinou stage in 15m49.5s. Loeb was just 1,6 seconds slower in the Citroen Xsara.
Gronholm’s third best time moved him up to second place overall, ahead of his Peugeot team-mate Harri Rovanpera. Rovanpera’s time, 13.2s off Solberg’s, drops him to third overall.
Carlos Sainz set the fourth-best time for Citroen followed by Markko Martin in his Ford Focus.
Henning Solberg in a Peugeot 206 set the seventh best time, with Subaru’s Mikko Hirvonen finishing the stage in ninth place. He was sandwiched by the two privateer Fords of Janne Tuohino (eighth) and Anthony Warmbold (tenth).
It is reported that Ford’s Francois Duval has been forced out of the rally after hitting a rock five kilometres from the end of SS1. Although he was able to reach the end of the stage, the damage to his wheel and suspension were sufficient to rule him out of the rest of the race.