Shakedown – Solberg and Subaru take control at home

Despite a bright sun, the temperature was cool (6°C) this morning when the 4th Rally Japan, the fourteenth round of the 2007 World Rally Championship, kicked off with the traditional shakedown. The final test session before the race took place over 1.3 kilometers alongside the service park. This park is located at the ‘Kita Aikoku Community Square,’ about 6 kilometers south of the city of Obihiro. Already used last year, this shakedown is well known to the crews. Indeed, in addition to hosting the final test session, it also serves as a super special stage and will be run five more times this year.

Petter Solberg and his Subaru Impreza WRC 2007 were the fastest. The Norwegian is ahead of the Citroën C4 WRC of Dani Sordo and Sébastien Loeb, while the Fords are further behind.

As in last season, the super-special of the Rally Japan is also used as a shakedown. On this short course, to be raced five times, Petter Solberg (Subaru) set the best time at 2’24”4 ahead of Dani Sordo (Citroën) and Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) by nearly three seconds.

“The repetition of this super special stage during the rally can be important,” analyzed Loeb.

« We therefore tried to fine-tune our settings to find what suits us best. The result of the New Zealand rally reminded us that every tenth of a second can count, so we are trying to leave nothing to chance. »

« If we lose a few seconds each time in this super special stage, Sordo concluded, « after five runs, the addition can prove costly. So it was important to prepare well for it even though it doesn’t represent the rest of the course at all. »

Xevi Pons (Subaru) is in fourth place ahead of Manfred Stohl (Citroën OMV) and Federico Villagra (Ford Munchi’s). Henning Solberg (Ford Stobart) and Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) complete the top 8.

Marcus Gronholm, for his part, did not try to attack. The Ford driver drove calmly this morning and finished with only the eleventh performance.