2007 Tour de Corse - Leg Two

1. BP-Ford

No information available at time of writing, please check site later.

Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen:

Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen:

2. Citroen Total

The second leg of this year's Tour de Corse, round 13 of the 2007 World Rally Championship, saw Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena and their Citroën C4 WRC strengthen their command at the top of the provisional standings.

Team-mates Dani Sordo and Marc Martí reached this evening' service park in Ajaccio in third place in the second Citroën- Total car.

Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "Today's programme was always going to be difficult, with the often dirty Carbuccia stage followed by the narrow and bumpy Liamone test, and then Vico which we had to contest on tyres that had lost some of their shine on the first two stages,"

explained Sébastien

Loeb at the lunchtime service halt. That, however, didn't prevent him from posting three fastest times from three to extend his advantage over Marcus Grönholm.

"We've just

passed the halfway point and our lead is now up to 12.6 seconds but I can't afford to drop my guard and I will continue to attack this afternoon."

Dani Sordo/Marc Marti: "The changes we made at service gave me my confidence back. The gap with Marcus is now up to 33.1s but we will do what we can to make that up tomorrow, although it won't be simple if everyone has an incident-free run."

3. Subaru

The three Impreza WRC2007s of the Subaru World Rally Team remain within the top seven in the overall standings after today's six stages. Petter was fifth after a hard-fought battle with Jari Matti Latvala, and Chris and Xevi came home sixth and seventh.

Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: "Today I was trying my best and doing all I could, but I wasn't happy with the balance of the car early on. We had a close battle with Latvala this morning but couldn't maintain our pace this afternoon. I made some changes which I felt made the car better, and we finished third fastest on the final stage which was a good step forwards.

The car is better, and we will make some more changes before tomorrow to try and improve it again for the last four stages."

Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: "At the moment I definitely feel more confident on the stages that aren't totally flat and smooth. SS9 / SS12 suited us much better today and I was able to get that good feeling again and really push. What we really need to work on is getting the feeling like that on the smooth sections as well, as currently it's not quite there. It's going to be hard to catch anyone ahead, but we will try and see what we can do."

Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo: "This afternoon the stages were tricky as there was a lot of gravel and sand on the surface after the first pass. I am happy with the car today though; it has good balance and we haven't made changes to the setup all day. I concentrated on my driving style in the slow corners this morning and I feel I have improved a lot, and that is where our improved pace has come from. I think there is still more to come, but for now I am happy with our pace and position."

4. OMV Kronos Citroen

No information available at time of writing, please check site later.

Francois Duval/Patrick Pivato:

Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor:

5. Stobart M-Sport Ford

Finns Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila head into tomorrow's final leg of Rallye de France - Tour de Corse in an amazing fourth place after François Duval retired from today's leg on the final road section. This 13th round of the FIA World Rally Championship is proving to be a fantastic show as battles rage on throughout the leaderboard.

Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: "It has been another learning day for me here and these difficult stages make it very hard to learn; but I am here, still inside the top-ten and still scoring two points. We adjusted the ride height of the car during service today and that really improved things. I do like these stages here and I'm happy to not have made any mistakes; the only way I will learn about this surface is to complete the stages. If I do a mistake then this won't happen. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, the roads are wider and it's a cleaner surface, I think this will be better for me."

Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "Today has been fantastic for me and to move up two places is a really good feeling. It's a shame for Duval to have stopped tonight but this is rallying and sometimes it gives you bad luck.

Today I have been concentrating on driving fast and not making any mistakes and this has worked well. We have been faster than Petter [solberg] on most stages and tomorrow I will be concentrating on keeping him behind me. I have been trying not to take any risks as I know this rally can easily catch you out. It should be good for me tomorrow, the roads are wider and clean, and this is the surface I prefer and am more confident on; hopefully I will be able to maintain my fourth position."

Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr: "Today has been quite good and this afternoon's stages have been a definite improvement on yesterday. Our tyre choice was perfect, a slight compromise as we went for a slightly softer compound to everyone else but it worked well and now we have a healthy selection for tomorrow. We are very close to [Andreas] Mikkelsen now and hopefully we may be able to get that position back tomorrow. The roads tomorrow and wider and smoother which are better and I enjoy them more; I have more confidence and find it easier to concentrate on driving cleaner and maintaining a better speed."

6. Munchis Ford

Munchis Ford are not entered in Corsica.

7. Skoda Czech Rally Team

Rally Corsica continued on Saturday with its second leg and the schedule included six special stages. The Czech Rally Team Kopecký, in its traditional makeup Jan Kopecký-Filip Schovánek, entered Saturday's leg as the ninth fastest and it held the position just outside of the eighth scored position even following the twelfth special stage, which closed the first two legs of the tarmac race on the island of Corsica.

Jan Kopecky/Filip Schovanek: "Our Skoda Fabia WRC car works flawlessly and it is only a pity that it is not available in newer homologation. Quite surely we would be able to battle with the top even in Rally Corsica. Local special stages place an emphasis especially on engine torque and its course.

This parameter cannot unfortunately be significantly improved without the new homologation. Of course I am happy with ninth position and understandably we will wait to see how the race will develop dring Suday's stage,"

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Remaining Event Schedule

Sunday 14 October: Leg 3 Ajaccio - Ajaccio

Start Place de Gaulle 07.45

Serv F Port CCI (10 mins) 07.55

SS13 Penitencier Coti - Pietra Rossa 24.24km 08.53

SS14 Pont de Calzola - Agosta 31.81km 09.36

Serv G Port CCI (30 mins) 11.01

SS15 Penitencier Coti - Pietra Rossa 24.24km 12.19

SS16 Pont de Calzola - Agosta 31.81km 13.02

Finish Place Foch 14.02

Total 112.10km

Rally total 359.32km