Turkey : Stobart news after SS13

The second day of Rally Turkey got underway this morning with the Stobart M-Sport Ford team moving to a series of rough stages based north of Rally HQ where an extremely close battle took place between Matthew Wilson, Federico Villagra and Kimi Raikkonen.

Day 2 of Rally Turkey is undoubtedly the toughest as drivers make two passes over the longest stage of the rally at 27.17km and also tackle the only predominantly tarmac stage of the three-day event.

Stobart’s Henning Solberg/Ilka Minor re-entered this morning under SupeRally Regulations after retiring in the opening stage yesterday when their Ford Focus RS WRC hit a tree stump. Solberg was on fire in the first stages, beating current Rally Turkey leader Sebastien Ogier by 1.2 seconds in stage 11 but in stage 13 he hit a ditch, spun and had to change a puncture which cost the Norwegian nearly three minutes in time.

Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin managed to close the gap in stage 11 where he was 12.1 seconds faster than Kimi Raikkonen and 15 seconds faster than Federico Villagra creating an exciting battle between the three WRC drivers.

Wilson has now moved up from ninth position into eighth, where he is 19.8 seconds behind Federico Villagra and 33 seconds behind Kimi Raikkonen. Both the Stobart team crews will be looking to improve on their times as they complete the same four stages this afternoon.

Matthew Wilson: “I had a bit of a frustrating morning as we got caught up in some of Jari-Matti Latvala’s after he rolled in the first stage this morning which caused us to slow down a bit but I was really pleased with my fast time in the following stage. I didn’t get my braking quite right when I was coming up to a junction so we spun and I lost time restarting my engine.”

Henning Solberg: “There are a lot of stones and loose gravel on the stages today, making the roads extremely rough. I lost a bit of concentration on stage 13 when I hit a ditch and spun the car causing a puncture. I think the second pass may be even harder this afternoon but I enjoy a good challenge.”