Petter fastest at Rally Argentina shakedown

Petter Solberg of the Subaru World Rally Team was the fastest driver at today’s pre Rally Argentina shakedown.

Solberg brought his Impreza WRC2007 through the 4.59km stage in a time of 2min 37.6sec, four tenths of a second faster than reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb who was his nearest challenger.

But despite his good pace, Solberg says the heavy rain that fell during the session made it impossible to read much into the times.

“The time was good but I don’t think it’s representative of what we’ll do on the rally,” said Solberg. “The road was very soft and cutting up quite badly. Like most of the guys our best time came on the first pass, after that we were all slower because the road was so rough. I was four seconds slower on the second pass. If the real stages are like this one it’s going to be a very tough rally indeed.”

After a period of dry and sunny weather in the Cordoba region, rain showers have fallen in Carlos Paz since the start of the week, making the event's soft gravel stages muddy, slippery and less than ideal for the hard compound tyres all the WRC crews will be using.

“The softer compound tyre would work better in these conditions - for sure,” said Solberg. “But it’s the same situation for everybody. We’ll just have to take it a little bit careful, take a little bit more care on mud patches. If the weather stays like it is now, and we are using tyres which are at their best in 30 degrees and on hot dry roads, then all of us are going to have to back off a bit.”

Shakedown times for WRC entrants:

1. P. Solberg: 2:37.6
2. Loeb: 2:38.0
3. Hirvonen: 2:38.9
4. Latvala: 2:39.5
5. H. Solberg: 2:40.7
6. Galli: 2:40.9
7. Atkinson: 2:42.6
8. Villagra: 2:44.6
9. Wilson: 2:45.6
10. Gardemeister: 2:46.1
11. Perez-Companc: 2:46.3
12. Sordo: 2:47.1
13. Andersson: 2:49.5
14. Rautenbach: 2:55.6