Rally d’Italia-Sardegna - Leg 3 - 21st May 2006 Leg information: Stages: 6 (3 repeated) 77.94 km Surface: soft and fine gravel, abrasive base surface Weather: Hot and dry all day, temperatures in the region of 28° centigrade

Suzuki summary:

A Suzuki Swift has won every stage of the Rally d’Italia-Sardegna, however the team has been forced to settle for fourth and fifth places after a broken oil pipe denied Englishman Guy Wilks the first place he had held magnificently from the opening day. Guy started the morning with an advantage of more than two and a half minutes, but was forced to retire when the engine lost its oil just three stages and 39 kilometres from the end. Nonetheless, he picked up a point at the finish for eighth place.

Estonian Urmo Aava finished third while Guy’s team mate P-G Andersson was fourth, after going off the road on day one following a series of punctures.

News from Guy Wilks:

“I’m very disappointed – it’s terrible bad luck. The oil pipe must have broken earlier in the stage, as I felt the engine gradually start to tighten. Then we stopped and tried to fix the pipe, but there was nothing more we could do as the car had lost all its oil. I think that we were perfectly on track to win the event, as we were driving sensibly and not taking any risks at all. Apart from one tiny pipe, the car worked perfectly throughout the weekend. I think we can consider this to be a moral victory for us!”

Other news from Suzuki:

P-G Andersson (4th in JWRC). “First of all, I have to say that I feel really sorry for Guy who did a great job and deserved to win this rally. As for me, I pushed hard all day, winning all the stages. We knew we could make up some places so we were on a mission from the start. Conditions were extremely tough but my car was perfect. We’ve come away with fifth place, which keeps us in touch for the championship.”

News from “Monster” Tajima:

“What happened on SS15 should take nothing away from Guy or the brilliant performance of our team over three extremely tough days. Guy deserved to win the rally and he drove perfectly, keeping out of trouble to maintain an impressive lead. I’m very pleased that a Suzuki has won all the stages on such a demanding event: this is a new record for us, which proves the fantastic speed and reliability of our cars. I’d like to congratulate Guy for a brilliant drive, and while we are obviously disappointed that he did not quite make the finish, there are more positive than negative things to take away from this weekend.”

Junior World Rally Championship final classification, Rally d’Italia:

1 Patrick Sandell (Renault Clio) 4h26m25.2s
2 Conrad Rautenbach (Renault Clio) +5m08.4s
3 Urmo Aava (Suzuki Swift) +5m36.8s
4 P-G Andersson (Suzuki Swift) +7m44.0s
5 Aaron Burkart (Citroen C2) +9m47.0s
6 Luca Betti (Renault Clio) +10m13.8s
7 Julien Pressac (Citroen C2) +11m15.1s
8 Guy Wilks (Suzuki Swift) +16m11.4s