Gardemesiter struggled with technical difficulties in second day of WRC Italy Sardegna

The Suzuki SX4 WRC of P-G Andersson has ended the second day of the Rally d¹Italia Sardegna just outside the points, after making solid progress that has underlined the Suzuki World Rally Team¹s focus on reliability. Andersson was ninth at the end of the opening day, while his team mate Toni Gardemeister was forced to retire from the day after hitting rear suspension problems on SS11. He made a temporary repair, but the team decided that it would be safer to withdraw him from the day in order to allow him to re-start tomorrow.

The stages on the second day of the rally were faster and more flowing than those of the previous day, but a hard base and a sandy surface meant that the roads were extremely slippery. In the afternoon, the threat of rain made the choice of set-up at midday service complicated, but both Toni and P-G opted for some compromise settings that worked well in the dry conditions. Having started the day in 11th position, P-G made up two places to end Saturday¹s action just one position away from the points-scoring places. The young Swede¹s aim is to maximise any opportunities that come his way tomorrow in order to score a point and reward the efforts of the Suzuki team to improve the SX4 WRC¹s reliability.

Apart from the problem that halted Toni Gardemeister with just one stage to go, the Suzuki World Rally Team fulfilled its objective to work on the SX4 WRC¹s reliability over today¹s six stages that totalled 134.60 competitive kilometres. Suzuki learnt several important lessons from the opening day of the event yesterday, and consequently the cars have been generally well-equipped to deal with the challenge of the narrow Sardinian roads throughout day two. The cause of Gardemeister¹s rear suspension problem will be analysed once the car returns to service at the harbourside in Olbia this evening and it is hoped that he will re-start the rally tomorrow.

Toni Gardemeister: ³I¹m not really sure what happened, but we had a problem with the rear suspension on SS11 that badly affected the handling of the car. It was a pity, as up until then we had encountered no problems at all and enjoyed another really good day. This just goes to show that when the car is reliable, it can be very effective. We have been deliberately careful not to take any risks today, and I certainly haven¹t been pushing to the maximum. We¹ll see what we can do tomorrow, but this rally has been really important for us so far, as it was vital to achieve a basic level of reliability in order to move forwards.²

Leaderboard after Day 2
1. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 2hr 59min 21.5sec
2= J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 59min 50.9sec
2= M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 59min 50.9sec
4. G Galli/G Bernacchini ITA Ford Focus RS 3hr 00min 39.2sec
5. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 3hr 00min 52.8sec
6. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 3hr 02min 03.6sec
7. H Solberg/C Menkerud NOR Ford Focus RS 3hr 03min 50.5sec
8. U Aava/K Sikk EST Citroen C4 3hr 03min 56.0sec
9. P-G Andersson/J Andersson SWE Suzuki SX4 3hr 05min 07.4sec
10 P Solberg/P Mills NOR Subaru Impreza 3hr 06min 50.7sec