In the land of Oz – Subaru rules….
author: Leon Botha
In the land of Oz – Subaru rules….
In the first Super Special Stage early on this morning (our time) it was Grönholm and Solberg who were at each others throats. Then in SS2 Hirvonen also came into the picture and Grönholm was leading him by 1.9 seconds going into SS3. Solberg was 3rd only .2 of a second behind Hirvonen.
Then full of fresh Ozzie adrenaline Atkinson came out of the blue and won SS3 on road surfaces where he grew up. The roads are extremely dry and slippery and believe me when I say, it must be so scary between those thick road bordering trees!
SS3 then also claimed its first victim and hopefully you are sitting down while reading this, as Grönholm fell pray to the lack of grip and then when he did not need it, got stacks of grip and he rolled the Focus.
Atkinson was now leading with Solberg in second, Hirvonen was 3rd, followed by Stohl and Pons.
In SS4 Atkinson was once again the quickest, while Hirvonen managed to take Solberg’s second spot and Pons in turn moved past Stohl.
SS5 was again won by Atkinson but by a mere .9 of a second. Grönholm on his comeback trial posted 3rd quickest and moved up into 47th position. You can be sure we are going to see a hell of a come back fight!
Hirvonen was still in second spot, but only 1.5 seconds ahead of Solberg (+15.1) Pons was 4th (+34.7) and 5th was Stohl (+40)
Henning Solberg was in 6th spot followed by Herridge, Arai, Baldacci, Latvala and Ligato.
SS6
In SS6 both Atkinson and Henning Solberg joins the Grönholm Roly Poly Club.
Solberg takes .1 of a second and Hirvonen’s lead “shrinks” to 1.4s. Pons drops back 10s and Stohl loses 15 to the leaders. Grönholm posts 5th fastest through the stage, while Sordo, Henning Solberg and Mathew Wilson all rejoin with a five minute penalty under the SupeRally rule.
Atkinson did not rejoin as his accident seems to have been quite severe.
In SS7 Solberg takes the lead after beating Hirvonen by 4.1s through the stage. Marcus again 17 seconds off the pace…. More later
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