A rock and broken sump ended Marcus Grönholm’s chances of victory during today’s second leg of Rally d’Italia Sardegna. The Finn, who started the day with a 35 second advantage, won the opening stage to consolidate his lead, but then hit a rock, damaged the sump and lost all the oil in the Ford Focus, forcing him into retirement and handing the lead to Sébastien Loeb.

Loeb, now the runaway leader of the seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship, hit the same rock as Grönholm, but luck was on the Frenchman’s side and he powered through the rest of the leg, claiming victory in four of the day’s six stages. He now has more than two minutes in hand to second-placed Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, with just six stages remaining on Sunday.

Daniel Sordo, in a private Citroën Xsara WRC, has climbed from fifth to third overnight, but has battled hard with local hero Gigi Galli throughout the leg. The pair traded positions four times in six stages, but Sordo takes the overnight advantage and Galli was forced to retire on the road section back to service in Olbia this evening. Henning Solberg, who was fourth overnight, hit a tree and holed the radiator, while Chris Atkinson, in the leading Subaru, was lucky to continue after landing heavily and damaging the radiator and steering.

Rally d’Italia Sardegna – Results after Leg 2
 

1. Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena	Citroën Xsara WRC	3 hr 02 min 26.0sec
2. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3 hr 04 min 43.0sec
3. Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti	Citroën Xsara WRC	3 hr 05 min 22.0sec
4. Xavier Pons/Carlos Del Barrio	Citroën Xsara WRC	3 hr 06 min 53.1sec
5. Chris Atkinson/Glenn Macneall	Subaru Impreza WRC	3 hr 08 min 22.7sec
6. Jussi Valimaki/Jarko Kalliolepo	Mitsubishi Lancer WRC	3 hr 08 min 27.6sec

 
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