Cyprus Rally: Solberg fights back into the points
Limassol, May 15: The Pirelli-equipped Subaru Impreza WRC2004 of Petter Solberg ends leg two of the Cyprus Rally in eighth position, having fought back from a time loss of several minutes yesterday. The Pirelli driver led the early stages of the event before some dust in the radiator caused his engine to overheat. The second Subaru Impreza of Mikko Hirvonen has finished day two in a points-scoring sixth place. Conditions were once again rough and rocky, with temperatures in the region of 30 degrees centigrade. The road surfaces were extremely aggressive, with tight hairpin bends testing the traction and braking performance of the tyres to the limit. Armed with Pirelli's renowned XR tyres, Solberg set three fastest stage times today more than any other driver. Like his team mate, Hirvonen also chose the XR tyre with the hardest compound (step 3) in order to counteract the hot conditions. Both drivers remained on this tyre all day, although Hirvonen chose to take a lightly-cut tyre in the afternoon. Pirelli's Rally Manager Fiorenzo Brivio commented: "Petter kept going in order to test the car and tyres thoroughly in preparation for the similar rough rallies in Greece and Turkey. He was pushing everything to the limit, and it's encouraging to see that the tyres stood up to this test very well." The final leg of Rally Cyprus takes in six more special stages tomorrow, making a total competitive distance over the rally of 326 kilometres. The finish takes place in Limassol at 1400. RALLY CYPRUS - Classification after 12 stages* 1 Gronholm-Rautiainen Peugeot 307 WRC 3h33m02.0s 2 Loeb-Elena Citroen Xsara WRC +22.9 3 Martin-Park Ford Focus WRC +33.6 4 Sainz-Marti Citroen Xsara WRC +1m20.3 5 Rovanpera-Pietilainen Peugeot 307 WRC +1m06.0 6 Hirvonen-Lehtinen Subaru Impreza WRC +4m44.9 7 Tuohino-Aho Ford Focus WRC +8m37.8 8 Solberg-Mills Subaru Impreza WRC +9m30.5 *SS11 cancelled: spectator problems Leg 3: Sunday 16 May, 6 special stages Finish: Sunday 16 May, 14.00 (18 stages in total)