Suzuki learns some useful asphalt lessons from Spain

The Rally de Espana has proved extremely useful for the Suzuki World Rally Team, as it has learned several valuable lessons about driving on asphalt for the Rallye de France-Tour de Corse that gets underway in less than a week's time. The final leg of the Spanish event took in six demanding asphalt stages today, which were as dirty as a gravel rally in places. In order to find the quickest lines through the corners, the cars always take deep cuts - and this pulls earth and stones right into the middle of the road. Despite these tricky conditions, which also carry a high risk of punctures, the Suzuki SX4 WRCs of Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson both arrived safely at the rally finish in Salou after 18 stages and 353 competitive kilometres.

Gardemeister was all set for a points-scoring result until he picked up a puncture at the end of day one, which caused him to lose more than two and a half minutes. He had a trouble-free run through days two and three, in which he concentrated on testing and development, to finish 13th overall despite another puncture on the final morning.

P-G Andersson also suffered a major setback early in the rally, when a pace note error on the second stage of Friday meant that he went off the road and slithered down a bank. The car was undamaged but the young Swede was unable to regain the stage. He re-started on Saturday under the super rally rules with a 25-minute penalty and also subsequently focussed on testing for the all-asphalt Rally de France.

Suzuki is now feeling confident for Corsica, renowned as the most fearsome asphalt event of them all. The SX4 WRC once more demonstrated perfect reliability over all three days of the Rally de Espana, as has been the case now for several months. This allowed both Gardemeister and Andersson plenty of time to experiment with differential and damper settings, which will be crucial on the bumpy asphalt of Corsica. As soon as the Spanish Rally finished, the Suzuki team packed up its trucks to head straight to the Mediterranean island. The rally begins with a ceremonial start in Ajaccio on Thursday.

Car news - Suzuki SX4 WRC n.11 (Gardemeister), n.12 (Andersson):
Today both Suzuki SX4 WRC drivers concentrated on testing their cars on some of the dirtier roads used on the Spanish event, under cooler temperatures. This experience will be of direct relevance to Corsica, as the higher-altitude stages there tend to be cool and the roads are often bumpy and dirty. At the service park in Port Aventura, the drivers changed some settings for the re-run over the first loop of three stages. The final loop of stages proved to be extremely slippery, testing the traction and grip of the SX4 WRC on unstable asphalt surfaces. The team also focussed on adapting the range of Pirelli PZero control tyres to the SX4 WRC on dirty asphalt. Once more, both cars were perfectly reliable throughout the 93 competitive kilometres of Sunday, with Andersson making up several places relative to his start position on the final day.

Driver news:

Toni Gardemeister: "It's a shame that we picked up the puncture on the first day, otherwise I am sure that we could have got some good points here. This rally has been very useful for us though, as we have come away with a lot of vital information for Corsica. I'm also pleased with the level of reliability: we've had no mechanical problems from start to finish which is among the most important thing on the World Rally Championship, as our double points finish on the last round in New Zealand showed. So I'm feeling quite confident as we head to Corsica; hopefully we can put all the potential we have shown on asphalt into practice there."

P-G Andersson: "I've been happy with the car in Spain, which makes my mistake on Friday all the more annoying as we had the chance to claim a good result. After that I put all my efforts into testing and development work for Corsica: we should be well-prepared now as we tried some stiffer damper settings this morning. Corsica is not a rally that I know well, but I'm looking forward to it a lot. I think the roads there will probably suit the SX4 WRC better than the roads here in Spain."

Team news:

Shusuke Inagaki, Suzuki World Rally Team Director: "This was the first proper asphalt round of the season for us, as Monte Carlo and Germany are certainly not typical of most asphalt rallies. Despite the fact that Spain was one of the quickest and toughest rallies of the year, both cars were completely reliable, which is very encouraging. Most importantly of all, we have been able to continue the SX4 WRC's development on asphalt by taking on board several valuable lessons from this event. Now we hope to use them on the next round in Corsica, which will be another big challenge for all of us - especially coming so soon after Spain."

Final result:
1 Sebastien Loeb 3:21:17.4 0.0
2 Daniel Sordo 3:21:42.3 +24.9
3 Mikko Hirvonen 3:22:19.6 +1:02.5
4 Francois Duval 3:22:28.8 +1:10.8
5 Petter Solberg 3:24:44.1 +3:27.4
6 Jari-Matti Latvala 3:25:21.5 +4:03.8
7 Chris Atkinson 3:25:22.3 +4:04.9
8 Andreas Mikkelsen 3:26:37.0 +5:19.6
13 Toni Gardemeister 3:32:43.5 +11:26.1
32 Per-Gunnar Andersson 3:54:06.4 +32:49.0

Day 2: Suzuki drivers continue to make progress on day two in Spain

After an unlucky opening leg yesterday - in which P-G Andersson went off the road and Toni Gardemeister picked up a puncture - the Suzuki SX4 WRC drivers have had a trouble-free second day of the Rally de Espana. Both drivers lost a lot of time with their respective misfortunes yesterday and so today they concentrated on testing set-ups for the next asphalt round in Corsica, which takes place in less than a week's time.

P-G Andersson re-started the event under the super rally rules this morning and is still well down the order, thanks to a 25-minute penalty for not having completed five stages following his off on SS2 yesterday. After a chilly start this morning the weather conditions remained dry and warm for the rest of the day, which meant that the two factory Suzuki crews used Pirelli's hard compound tyres throughout the leg. Tomorrow's final day takes in six more demanding asphalt stages before the finish ramp back in the popular coastal resort of Salou at 15:07.

Car news - Suzuki SX4 WRC n.11 (Gardemeister), n.12 (Andersson):
With their hopes of a top-eight finish ended by bad luck yesterday, the Suzuki drivers concentrated on testing different set-ups throughout today's six stages. In order to bring back the maximum possible amount of development information, neither driver took any risks over the course of the action. Most of the set-up work concentrated on dampers and suspension, although the drivers also spent time evaluating wear on the new Pirelli PZero control tyres with a different range of settings.

Both SX4 WRCs were entirely reliable, and thanks to this consistent form Gardemeister and Andersson were able to make up two and 24 places compared to their start positions this morning respectively. The information gained today will be extremely useful for the next asphalt round in Corsica, as the leg two itinerary in Spain most closely resembles the conditions that the drivers will encounter on the Mediterranean island next week.

Driver news:

Toni Gardemeister: "We still had a lot of understeer in the morning, which may be related to the way that we use the tyres. The most important thing is that we investigate the reasons why this is happening and try to find a solution. We made some small changes to the set-up in service and these seemed to work well. Tomorrow we will continue to check our findings, and then hopefully we should be in good shape for Corsica. The really positive thing about this event is that so far our car has been extremely reliable: without picking up the puncture yesterday we would have been comfortably in the top 10."

P-G Andersson: "Having dropped so much time yesterday it's been quite hard to get properly motivated today, so we have just been driving carefully through the stages and doing some bits of testing. I tried a few different clicks on the dampers this morning and we found a couple of interesting things for the future. We've had no problems at all today, which was good, but I wish we were a bit higher up the overall classification!"

Team news:

Shusuke Inagaki, Suzuki World Rally Team Director: "We are very pleased to note that our car has been completely reliable over the toughest day of the rally. Today we have concentrated on testing for Corsica, so we have not really been looking at the stage times. It looks like we are on track to bring two cars safely home to the finish which is satisfying for us. But it is also clear that there is plenty more work to do, so this will be our aim for tomorrow."

Day 1: Suzuki drivers optimistic despite bad luck on opening day of Catalunya

The Rally de Espana - which is the first 'real' asphalt event of the season - got underway with six stages today, split into two loops of three speed tests with service in between at Port Aventura, Europe's largest theme park, to the south of Barcelona.

At the end of another challenging day, Toni Gardemeister has brought his SX4 WRC home in 17th overall. The Finn picked up a front-right puncture on the penultimate stage of the leg, which caused him to lose two and a half minutes. Nonetheless, he still has the chance to claim points over the two long days that remain in Spain.

His team mate P-G Andersson unfortunately went off the road on the second special stage of the day, having set a top-10 time on SS1. His SX4 WRC was undamaged and he will re-start tomorrow under the super rally system, with a penalty of five minutes for every stage missed. Today's six stages totalled 131 competitive kilometres and made up the longest leg of the rally, with cool temperatures in the morning becoming progressively warmer as the day went on. Consequently, the majority of drivers elected to use Pirelli's hard-compound asphalt tyres throughout the day.

Thanks to a number of new stages for this year the drivers often found themselves on unfamiliar terrain, with this year's Spanish stages being slightly slower and twistier than they have been in the past. Gardemeister's SX4 WRC was entirely reliable throughout the day, to continue the consistently strong run that Suzuki has enjoyed from the middle of the season.

Car news - Suzuki SX4 WRC n.11 (Gardemeister), n.12 (Andersson):
The drivers reported no problems with their SX4 WRCs throughout the day, although the slippery nature of the asphalt meant that Gardemeister suffered from a lack of grip during the morning's loop of stages. He made some suspension adjustments at service to try and soften the car in order to gain better traction, having experienced some understeer and a spin on the opening stage. The changes worked well, but then on the penultimate stage of the day Gardemeister picked up a front-right puncture. Andersson had no problems on the opening stage, where he set 10th fastest time. Tomorrow he hopes to continue the task of adapting himself and the Suzuki SX4 WRC to the challenging asphalt stages of Spain.

Driver news:

Toni Gardemeister: "After I heard about P-G's off on the second stage, I just drove carefully to the end of the morning's loop of stages. During service at midday I made a few changes and the car definitely felt better but we didn't really get the chance to show it as we caught a puncture 10 kilometres into SS5. We continued to the end and then changed the wheel for the last stage, but we had already lost two and a half minutes."

P-G Andersson: "What happened on the second stage was my fault. We were just too quick approaching a left-hand corner about two kilometres from the end because my notes were a bit optimistic. We almost got round the corner but then we had a lot of understeer at the exit and went off down a steep bank. The car had no damage at all, but the bank was too steep to drive back up. It's a pity, but at least we have the chance to start again tomorrow. "

Team news:

Shusuke Inagaki, Suzuki World Rally Team Director:
"Just as we expected, the opening day of the Rally de Espana has provided us with a big challenge, but I have to say that we were also a bit unlucky. A mistake with the pace notes is something that can happen, but it is a pity that this happened to P-G on only the second stage of the day and that there was a steep bank to prevent him from re-joining straight away. Toni had bad luck to pick up a puncture. Looking on the positive side, at least we end tonight with two cars that are intact and the chance still to drive two more challenging legs tomorrow and on Sunday.