Rally de España – after stage 10, La Serra d'Almos 1
Seventy-six of the original 81 starters left Salou this morning under cloudless skies for the second day's action on Rally de España, round 12 of the FIA World Rally Championship. Seven cars started under SupeRally rules having retired yesterday and all face two identical anti-clockwise loops of four speed tests covering 119.16km north and west of the rally base. On the special stages conditions were cloudy in places but dry, and in contrast to yesterday tyre selection was straightforward. BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen and team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen both opted for BF Goodrich's medium compound tyre with a small cut.
Grönholm enjoyed a good morning in his Focus RS World Rally Car. The Finn was fastest on the opening 13.29km Vilaplana and second on the following 26.33km Coll del Grau, a new test to the rally. Grönholm also won the 15.85km journey from Margalef to La Palma d'Ebre before ending his morning with another second place on the short 4.11km La Serra d'Almos. He returned to service in Salou still in third, having narrowed the overnight gap to leader Sébastien Loeb by 3.0sec to 47.6sec.
"Today is much better now that the sun is shining and the roads are drier," said Grönholm. "My tyre choice was good but the asphalt was still quite damp in places. I was expecting it to be totally dry and that wasn't the case. Everything feels good but I don't want to push too hard and take risks because the two guys ahead are too far away for me to catch unless they have problems."
BP-Ford team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen had a solid morning in their Focus RS to retain fourth and extend their advantage over François Duval to 34.3sec. Their best performance came with third fastest in Coll del Grau. "I had hoped to take back some time from the French cars ahead of us but that's not happened. But I'm not settling for fourth. I'm trying to do everything I can to make the gap bigger over Duval to help the team's title aims," said the 27-year-old Finnish driver.
Abu Dhabi driver Khalid Al Qassimi and Nicky Beech climbed to 14th in another Focus RS. "Yesterday when I started the stages after the other drivers I was able to see their driving lines and follow them. Today I am first car and I don't have that advantage so it is more difficult. All in all, I’ve had a good morning and today is much more fun than yesterday," said Al Qassimi.
Leaderboard after stage 10 of 18
1. S Loeb/D Elena F Citroen C4 1hr 56min 38.6sec
2. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroen C4 1hr 56min 53.0sec
3. M Grönholm/T Rautiainen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 57min 26.2sec
4. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 57min 39.0sec
5. F Duval/P Pivato B Citroen Xsara 1hr 58min 13.3sec
6. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza 1hr 58min 46.4sec
7. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 59min 12.6sec
8. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 1hr 59min 47.6sec
9. X Pons/X Amigo E Subaru Impreza 2hr 00min 41.7sec
10 H Solberg/C Menkerud N Ford Focus RS 2hr 03min 41.8sec