Abarth suffered a
big setback to its challenge to win the Rally Russia during
last night's opening four stages with Giandomenico Basso and
Anton Alén both winding up nearly a minute and a half down
on the leaderboard at the end of the difficult and frantic
first day's action.
The day had started
well for Basso who was second fastest to the Skoda of Juha
Hanninen on SS1 although Alén had a more tricky stage and
lost 11 seconds in his Grande Punto Abarth S2000. "I had a
problem when we went through the water on that stage and it
came in through the fresh air vent on the roof," the winner
of the event in 2007 said. "It soaked the inside of the
windscreen and made things pretty heavy going for a while."
On the second stage
Hanninen's team mate Jan Kopecký squeezed past Basso and
with the Italian Abarth driver later collecting a puncture
that cost him valuable time, he arrived at overnight parc
ferme 1 minute and 21 seconds down on the rally leader, and
just 4 seconds ahead of his Finnish team mate who also had a
difficult opening day, and had a worryingly high water
temperature as well as bodywork damage from his SS3
puncture.
It is Hanninen
though who held the overnight lead for Skoda after flying
through the first four stages while many of the big names
were caught out by
treacherous conditions.
Having led from the start, Hanninen again set the
fastest time as the field came through their second run
of the evening in the Kutuzovo stage. He stretched his
advantage over teammate Kopecký by another two
seconds over the 10.35 km forest stage, while third
placed Guy Wilks
holds an advantage over Basso after a
fine showing for the new Proton Satria Neo.
Russian champion Aleksandr Zheludov is now flying in his
Peugeot 207 after fixing the ignition coil to hold
sixth. Franz Wittmann's Mitsubishi Evo IX holds seventh
overnight despite two punctures - one in SS3 and one on
the road to SS4, with Boris Zimin eighth and Kaspar
Koilta ninth as the leading 2WD car.
The 70.05km total through the four stages on Thursday
took a heavier toll on the local drivers than on the
IRC stars, with reigning national champion Zheludov's
engine woes paling as five-time former Russian rally
champion Andrey Zhigunov was forced out after suspension
damage on SS 2 in his Mitsubishi.
Provisional standings after 4 stages:
1 Hanninen 28m 28.5s
2 Kopecky +27.5s
3 Wilks +46.5s
4 Basso +1m 21.0s
5 Alen +1m 25.0s
6 Zheludov +2m 3.9s
7 Wittmann +2m 45.0s
8 Zimin +3m 52.7s
