|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
14.6.2008 - Suzuki retires after strong early showing at Rally of Turkey
The second day of the Rally of Turkey provided one of the toughest challenges of the World Rally Championship season. The mountainous stages to the west of the rally¹s host town of Kemer were, once again, bathed in sunshine ensuring they were baked hard. Both Suzuki SX4 WRCs made it through the opening stage of day two without any problems. Unfortunately for Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson, both drivers retired on the next stage Gardemeister¹s car with a broken radiator, Andersson¹s with an electrical glitch.
The two Suzuki SX4 WRCs demonstrated strong reliability through the opening leg, but succumbed to the exceptionally rough conditions and tremendously high ambient temperatures on the Kemer-based Rally of Turkey. Neither of the SX4 WRCs will start the final day tomorrow. The engine in Gardemeister¹s car was overheated after the radiator was broken, while the sister Suzuki of Andersson was hit by an electrical issue, which first occurred on the opening day.
Toni Gardemeister: ³There are positives to take away from this rally. We have been quick, quicker than before with the gap regularly below one second per kilometre down on the leader. But when you have some trouble, it¹s always disappointing. We were about half way through the stage when I noticed the car was starting to lose power. Then the engine temperature was going up. I thought this could be because we were in a very twisty section of the stage it¹s normal for the temperature to rise in this condition. But when it carried on going up, then I knew we had to switch off the radiator was broken. My shoulder was also hurting a little. I hit a big rock early in the stage, which knocked it badly. I had to drive one-handed for a while again. The next round of the championship takes us home to Finland and that¹s an event I¹m really looking forward to. We will have a test and some new parts to come from the car. It¹s nice to know the SX4 WRC will be even faster when we get to my home.²
Paul Wilding, Suzuki World Rally Team manager: ³We have seen more pace coming from the Suzuki SX4 WRC on this rally. It would have been nice to have got through more stages, as every kilometre we do with this car means more experience for the drivers and the team. P-G has lost a lot of time missing stages today, so the team felt it more worthwhile to trace the cause of the electrical problem here in the service park rather than sending the car out again.²
Final positions
1. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 4hr 42min 07.1sec
2. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 4hr 42min 15.0sec
3. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 4hr 42min 32.8sec
4. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 4hr 44min 32.7sec
5. H Solberg/C Menkerud NOR Ford Focus RS 4hr 44min 40.8sec
6. P Solberg/P Mills NOR Subaru Impreza 4hr 44min 55.3sec
7. M Wilson/S Martin GBR Ford Focus RS 4hr 46min 31.3sec
8. C Rautenbach/D Senior ZIM Citroen C4 4hr 49min 53.8sec
9. F Villagra/J Perez Companc ARG Ford Focus RS 4hr 51min 41.2sec
10 B Clark/P Nagle GB Ford Focus RS 4hr 56min 55.9sec
13.6.2008 - Suzuki enjoys a strong day in the Turkish sunshine
Both Suzuki drivers Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson enjoyed a thrilling day on the Turkish stages, as they hurled their SX4 WRCs along some of the twistiest and roughest roads around. Andersson moved into the top 10 on the fourth stage and remained there with some stunning times including fourth fastest on the day¹s penultimate test. He only slipped out of the top 10 when a suspension problem cost him time on the final stage. He starts tomorrow¹s second day in 12th place. Gardemeister¹s day proved to be among the most physically challenging of his entire world rally career. The Finn suffered the agony of a dislocated shoulder on stage six, but battled on to end the day in ninth position. Gardemeister ended his day on a high setting fifth fastest time, just 1.9 seconds slower than four-times world champion Sebastien Loeb on the day¹s final stage.
Toni Gardemeister¹s SX4 WRC ran without any technical faults through the opening day¹s nine stages. Gardemeister¹s only car-related problem came with a puncture on the day¹s opening test. The sister Suzuki of P-G Andersson was hit by a minor hydraulic glitch for two mid-day stages and then suffered broken suspension for the majority of SS9.
Toni Gardemeister: ³About five kilometres from the end of the stage [SS6] I was turning in a right-hand hairpin. I hit a rock and the steering wheel was ripped out of my hand; the impact dislocated my left shoulder. The pain was incredible. The shoulder went back in after a couple of seconds. The doctor worked on my shoulder in service and it wasn¹t so bad in the last two stages. It was really good to come through the last stage with a good time.²
Paul Wilding, Suzuki World Rally Team manager: ³Our objective for this event is the same as it was for Greece: to get cars to the finish. From that perspective, it¹s been another good day. We haven¹t seen the SX4 WRC running at under half a second per kilometre slower than the lead car before today and I have to say I¹m really pleased with that. We know what risks the guys are taking at the front and we know what risks our guys are doing to set these times. This is a good pace, but there¹s more to come from Suzuki.²
Leaderboard after Day 1
1. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 2hr 02min 35.2sec
2. H Solberg/C Menkerud NOR Ford Focus RS 2hr 02min 36.2sec
3. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 02min 36.3sec
4. G Galli/G Bernacchini ITA Ford Focus RS 2hr 02min 37.4sec
5. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 02min 42.1sec
6. P Solberg/P Mills NOR Subaru Impreza 2hr 03min 24.3sec
7. M Wilson/S Martin GBR Ford Focus RS 2hr 03min 41.1sec
8. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 2hr 03min 42.0sec
9. T Gardemeister/T Tuominen FIN Suzuki SX4 2hr 05min 02.3sec
10 C Rautenbach/D Senior ZIM Citroen C4 2hr 05min 25.2sec
6.6.2008 - Suzuki hopes for delight on Turkish Rally
After a year¹s absence from the calendar, the Rally of Turkey makes a welcome return to the World Rally Championship this year as the eighth round of the series, marking the halfway point of the 2008 season. As expected, Suzuki has climbed a tough learning curve on its debut season, with every event presenting a new challenge. Turkey is the last of a trio of Mediterranean rallies run on rough gravel, before a break of more than a month for all the WRC teams. Suzuki is aiming to end the first half of the season on a high, following the improved reliability of the SX4 WRC seen in Sardinia and Greece. Although the surfaces in Turkey should not be as harsh as they were on the Acropolis, this event still contains a number of hazards that can catch people out. In the past the weather on the Rally of Turkey has been varied, but the forecast this year is for dry and consistent conditions which should make the event a level playing field for all the drivers to fight on equal terms.
In terms of durability, the Acropolis Rally was one of Suzuki¹s strongest-ever events: a good omen for Turkey, which contains some similar stages. With the Turkish rally not having formed part of the WRC calendar last year, nobody has any recent data about the stages ensuring that the competition should once again be close. The rally gets underway on Thursday night at 17:00 with a ceremonial start and superspecial stage at Akdeniz University on the outskirts of Antalya in southern Turkey. The competitors will then contest a total of 19 special stages totalling 360.12 competitive kilometres before the finish at 14:50 on Sunday. For more information: www.wrcturkey.com
The car will start off with the same base set-up as for Greece, but with some specific modifications to suit the demands of Turkey. The Turkish stages are not as consistently rough as those in Greece, which proved to be a brilliant test bed for the SX4 WRC. Consequently, there are some adjustments to the suspension and dampers for the Turkish event, and the car¹s cooling system has also been modified to deal with the expected high temperatures even more efficiently.
Despite Turkey being gentler on the car than the Acropolis, there are still some sections that are extremely rocky, so finding the correct set-up and ride height will be of crucial importance during the shakedown. In the past there have been some spectacular watersplashes in Turkey, but these are not expected to figure so prominently this year. Suzuki¹s engineers have recently upgraded the SX4 WRC¹s underbody protection so it should be ready for anything.
Toni Gardemeister has contested the Rally of Turkey twice before, finishing sixth overall in 2005, while P-G Andersson has competed three times already in Turkey: one of the few rallies this year where the young Swede has better knowledge of the conditions than his experienced team mate. Nonetheless, P-G has bittersweet memories of the event. Having won the Junior Championship classification as part of a Suzuki one-two in 2005, he won again in 2006 only to be disqualified for a trivial rule infringement to do with the fitting of light pods.
For Toni, it will be very much a question of re-acquainting himself with the Turkish stages after a three-year absence. ³I don¹t know a lot about the stages, but I remember that they were quite nice and classic gravel roads,² he said. ³In 2003 it was very cold, and the stages were partly covered with snowand ice. When I did the rally in 2005, the recce was very foggy so it was difficult to have good pace notes. Hopefully the conditions should be a bit better this year. In terms of the car, we have definitely seen an improvement in the reliability recently and our aim is to continue in this way for the rest of the season.²
Following on from its strong showing in Greece, the entire Suzuki World Rally Team is intent on consolidating the speed and reliability of the car in Turkey, before the WRC¹s annual summer break. Durability is still the key focus within the Suzuki squad in Turkey, which should be the final rough rally of the season. The emphasis then turns to asphalt for the second half of the year, with rallies in Germany, Spain and Corsica still to come.
³Turkey is an excellent opportunity for us to continue developing the car in these types of conditions,² said Nobuhiro ŒMonster¹ Tajima, the Suzuki World Rally Team principal. ³So far we have made a lot of progress, but there is still plenty of work ahead of us if we are to achieve our objective of eventually challenging for podiums. Our objective for Turkey is to once more finish with both cars in the points and build some solid foundations for the future.²
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
