The 2007 Rally d'Italia-Sardegna ended up springing more than its fair share of surprises. The weekend began with a strong early showing from Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford/BFGoodrich) who emerged on top after SS3 before shattering his steering against a rock. It continued with Marcus Grönholm inheriting the lead after SS4 before being forced back by a damper problem and, finally, Sébastien Loeb, who appeared to be totally in control, threw away his chances with an off on Sunday to hand victory on a plate to Grönholm.
The Sardinian mountain tracks that wind their way between Ala dei Sardi and Monti were as sandy and covered in as deep a top-coating of loose gravel as ever this weekend. Just ask Sébastien Loeb who, as provisional championship leader prior to the visit to the Mediterranean island, was forced to run first on the road on Day 1 and therefore sweep a clear line for his rivals following further down the order over the opening loop of 70-plus kilometres of stages. His extensively hand-cut, medium compound g-Force Gravel tyres helped him limit the damage however, and he managed to complete the first three tests in 5th position, just 10.4 seconds behind the leader. And with the top-five bunched together as tightly as sardines in a tin, the ensuing fight appeared to be extremely open!
But just as the scene seemed set for a thrilling showdown high in the sun-kissed mountains, a familiar curse struck the Ford Focus of Marcus Grönholm. After retiring while leading when a hole pierced his sump here in 2006, this time it was a loose remote damper reservoir that toppled the Finn from the provisional lead, allowing Loeb to profit from a faultless Leg 1 run to end the day in front, 22.4s clear of Grönholm and around half a minute ahead of Mikko Hirvonen. An all too familiar scenario seemed to be unfolding.
Once again, as Sébastien Loeb set about powering his Citroën C4 irresistibly clear of his rivals, there seemed to be nothing Grönholm could do to thwart the Citroën driver who doubled his cushion in the space of just three stages. It really did appear to be all over bar the shouting. But Sunday turned out to be another day. The organisers had succeeded in finding three brand new, if short stages to the north near Tempio before the final run-in to the Porto Cervo finish ceremony. One of them, 'San Giovanni' always promised to be particularly tricky with 10km of undulating tracks featuring several awesome blind crests in the middle of thick bush.
It was on one of these jumps, some 4km from the start, that Sébastien Loeb saw his chances of a 33rd world class win and ten Drivers' points slip from his grasp. Travelling too quickly over a crest, the N°1 Citroën C4 put a wheel on a verge and hit an enormous granite boulder. The impact buckled the Frenchman's front-left wheel under the car and the C4 came to a definitive halt a couple of kilometres further on.
Marcus Grönholm was just recovering from an harmless spin later in the stage when he learnt of Loeb's retirement. After that, he was free to cruise home to the 27th WRC win of his career and regain the lead in the 2007 Drivers' championship with an advantage of seven points over Loeb.
In the Manufacturers' standings, Ford took a maximum 18 points, while Citroën limited the damage thanks to an impressive Dani Sordo who heroically warded off the pressure from Henning Solberg.
Patrick Letort, Chief Rally Technician, BFGoodrich
"The classic '9' and '9+' compound g-Force Gravel worked well on these stages which were both slippery and extremely hard on the tyres. As for the new g-Force Gravel 10, even though it wasn't used that much (and even then not always in ideal conditions: problems for the Subaru drivers on Friday afternoon and insufficiently rough stages on Saturday afternoon), the information we were able to glean from the rockier portions and when the weather was at its hottest suggests it will give good durability in Greece in two weeks' time. We also noted a high number of punctures this weekend but each time the mousse run-flat system did its job. On Saturday afternoon, Marcus Grönholm punctured after losing his spare wheel on SS11. Thanks to the mousse, however, he was able to complete SS12 without changing tyres. Again on Saturday, Sébastien Loeb finished the second loop with five damaged rims."
