Solberg closes to within eighteen seconds of Sordo
The Mini John Cooper Works WRCs finished the fourth day of the Monte Carlo rally just where they had begun it, with Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio in second and Pierre Campana/Sabrina de Castelli in seventh. Eight-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb continued to lead in his Citroen, with a margin of 2 minutes, 41 seconds over Sordo.
Day four, which included two stages on the Col de Turini in the Maritime Alps just behind Monte Carlo, was run in dry conditions. The story of the day was the performance of Ford’s Petter Solberg, who began over a minute behind Sordo and just 23 seconds ahead of Citroen’s Mikko Hirvonen. Solberg won three of the day’s four stages, increasing his lead over Hirvonen, who spun at one point, and closing to just eighteen seconds behind Sordo. (Text continues after photo)
Unless Sordo has a major problem on Sunday’s single 5.16 kilometer stage, which is anticipated to take about fifty minutes to run, Solberg will most likely be unable to catch him. Campana’s seventh appears to be safe, as he has a 2 minute, 6 second edge over eighth place runner Ott Tanak in his Ford. Of course, there are no guarantees in motorsport, so the proof of the finishing positions will have to wait until mid-day on Sunday.
Sordo said, “I am quite satisfied because we are still in second place, but to be honest I am not really happy today as I lost a lot of time to Petter Solberg. He was pushing really, really hard in the first two stages and took 25 or 26 seconds off me, which is a lot. Yesterday was more fun as I did better times. Tomorrow there is just one stage of five kilometers so it will be difficult for Petter to overtake me. I will try to do my best in this stage, but I want to be on the podium and this is a really tricky and narrow stage.”—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org
