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CUPRA · 04-08-2007 , 23:52:56

Rally Finland Leg 2:

Leg two was fully expected to be a mix of highs and lows for the competitors.The busiest day on the rally schedule featured over 188 km of stages, with 66 km being two runs through the infamous Ouninpohja. While no one was able to reel in either BP-Ford cars on Leg one, it was hoped that the longer stages would give some of the other teams more of a chance.

The day started off with a Sebastien Loeb stage win and a glimmer of hope for the field, but then the long stages came.Stage 13 saw Manfred Stohl roll his car multiple times after dropping two wheels into a ditch. The day was done for the OMV Kronos Citroen driver, but thankfully no one was injured in the accident. The same stage also saw the beginning of car troubles for Petter Solberg.

The same mechanical issues the Norwegian had at the beginning of Leg one reappeared in time for the longest stage of the rally. Solberg, again, began to complain of poor handling even though his team-mates never suffered from similar issues.
Juho Hanninen also suffered mechanical trouble on Ouninpohja, losing a cylinder during the 33.11 km stage.The Mitsubishi limped into service where it was retired for the day.

Gronholm meanwhile went on a rampage taking stage win after stage win while his main competitors continued to run into trouble. On stage 15, Dani Sordo, who was lying in fifth ran into car troubles on stage and had to stop before reaching the finish. The Spaniard retired and Solberg temporarily inherited fifth.T he Subaru driver quickly dropped down the rankings as the car proved impossible to drive, and he, too, was eventually retired from the rally.

The retirements created a wonderful battle for sixth place between Urmo Aava and Xavier Pons, with the gap between the two drivers closing down to as little as 0.4 seconds between stages.
As the remote third service of the day approached it was discovered that Guy Wilks, who had been sitting eighth overall damaged his back, and his Ford Focus, during the second run of Ouninpohja. The car lost all hydraulic fluid and could not be repaired with the limited resources of the remote service. The Focus was still drivable, but Wilks began losing massive amounts of time to Mads Ostberg. The Subaru driver eventually caught and passed Wilks on the leaderboard during the day's final stages.

Gronholm continued his relentless pace through the longer stages and into the shorter stages 17 and 18 until he had built a 21 second lead over team-mate Mikko Hirvonen. Hirvonen then took the final two stages of the day, but only managed to claw back a second with the back to back wins.

With three stages left on Leg three, the top five seem settled into position and the bottom three points giving spots, positioned for an all out assault. While stages 21 and 23 are shorter tests, Leg two has proven you can never rule out the roads of Finland, and what damage they may bring to the standings.