A win for Subaru-ProDrive on Leg 1 of WRC Japan

[spi-ti-tout]

Well from the updates that I've been recieving WRC Japan is THe hotbed at the moment. At the beginning of SS1 Citroen stronghold Loeb was in 12th but then pushed to first in just under 10 minutes to get SS2 from STi driver Atkinson who had SS1 for himself. In SS3 Atkinson was pushing harder than ever and stole it from Loeb, in the meantime team-mate Solberg was making his own pace and conquered SS4 to make a triple-stage time win for Subaru ATT*, SS5 however was taken from him by a matter of just 00:00.4 miliseconds by Italian Mitsubishi driver "Gigi" Galli. SS6 had come to see Peugeot 307cc WRC driver Marcus Grönholm dominating for a first stage win for Peugeot but current reigning WRC champion Sébastien Loeb was not about to give up and floored it for SS7. Neither was the Subaru World Rallying Team however and Solberg went on to win SS8 which brought 4 stage wins for Subaru, with 2 wins each per driver. In the last stage however Finnish lead Rovanperä sported a time of 01:38.2 with just a gap of 00:00.5 between him and Grönholm. At the end of Leg 1, WRC Japan, driver of the event award was given to Petter who has won 5 total WRC events this season in his blue car. Right behind him was Loeb and 3rd place went to Grönholm. I'll keep you all updated as the rally goes on. Unfortunately 3rd Mitsubishi driver Panizzi was having trouble finding his place in his 3rd gravel rally of the year and stood as cheerful as ever despite defeated all the way down to 13th position. But for the end of day 1, the toaster-spoiler Impreza was just too good for everybody.

- spi-ti-tout