Prokop within sight of the Junior lead...

Shaun Gallagher, the winner of last year’s JWRC rookie award, was fourth overall and second in the C2 Junior Experience, ahead of the similar C2 Super 1600 of Aaron Burkart. Hans Weijs Junior was seventh overall in the Citroen C2-R2 MAX, ahead of Sebastien Ogier (C2 S1600) – who re-started the day under the SupeRally system – in the final points-scoring place.

Another SupeRally starter, and the final Citroen competitor, was the Italian Francesco Fanari, competing on his first event with a new Citroen C2-R2 MAX. Unfortunately, he broke his suspension and pulled a wheel off on the final stage of the day, SS12.

The roads used on the rally today were faster and more flowing than those that had been seen on the opening day, but several sharp rocks by the side of the road still presented a big hazard to all the crews. Martin Prokop (CZ) – Jan Tomanek (CZ) (Citroën C2 Super 1600) Born 04/10/82 – Single – Lives Jihlava (Czech Republic) « What a day! Today has been all about finding the right compromise between speed and safety. I started off the day driving quite cautiously, and in fact I think I was probably a bit too cautious. I didn’t want to run the risk of having any punctures, but then I realised that if I wanted to win I had to take some risks. In the afternoon I pushed a bit harder and it worked well, but there’s still a very long way to go and the fight is extremely close. I’m not happy taking some of the risks, but we have no choice... »

Shaun Gallagher (EI) – Clare Mole (GB) (Citroën C2 Super 1600) Born 07/06/80 – Single – Lives County Donegal (Ireland) « I didn’t have the best set-up in the morning: it would have worked well for the stages of yesterday but not the ones today, which were quicker and harder. The car was rolling around too much, so I made the suspension firmer and that improved things – although I lost too much time in the morning as I was only driving at 70 or 80%. I’m happy with our position but not with our times; we need to be a bit closer.”

Aaron Burkart (D) – Michael Koelbach (D) (Citroën C2 Super 1600) Born 20/09/82 – Single – Lives Berlin (D) « Luckily we had no real incidents today, unlike yesterday, but I didn’t really like the setup of the car. It was too soft and too high, meaning that we had understeer going into the corners and oversteer coming out of them. It was hard to decide what to do with the set-up of the car in the afternoon, as the weather made the decision a bit of a lottery, but in the end it was OK for us. Now we just have to keep concentrated and make sure we finish the event tomorrow, as we have a chance of scoring some very useful points.”

Hans Weijs (NL) – Hans Van Goor (NL) (Citroën C2-R2 MAX) Born 19/12/86 – Single – Lives Elst (Netherlands) « The morning was very tricky for us: we went cautiously through the first stage but then we had a very big jump on the second stage, and when we landed we hit the radiator against a rock and broke it. We managed to get to the end of the stage and then fix it, but it was clear that it was only going to be a temporary repair so we had to drive extremely carefully through the third stage. We fixed the problem at service but we are going to have to drive with care now to conserve our position: there is a big gap in front of us and behind us. »

Sébastien Ogier (F) – Julien Ingrassia (F) (Citroën C2 Super 1600) Born 17/12/83 – Single – Lives Forest St Julien (France) « We started today under the Super Rally system and the car is feeling fine, but obviously for us it is not quite the same motivation as it was at the beginning of the rally so it is hard to go flat-out. However, we have a new objective now: we are just going to drive a steady rally and score as many points as possible. What the final result will be is out of our hands: we can only try to do a good job and avoid problems. We just have to see what happens with everyone else. »

Francesco Fanari (I) – Massimiliano Bosi (I) (Citroën C2-R2 MAX) Born 07/07/83 – Single – Lives Spello (Italy) « Today was our first opportunity to drive some proper kilometres with the C2-R2 MAX, so we just tried to take it easy in order to concentrate on learning the car. It seems very good indeed, but I need more time behind the wheel in order to fully maximise its potential. »

Junior classification, Rally d’Italia, at end of leg two :

1 M. Kosciuszko/M. Szczepaniak (Suzuki Swift S1600) 3h 17 min 32.5s

2 M. Prokop/J. Tomanek (Citroen C2 S1600) +0.5s

3 A.Bettega/S.Scattolin (Renault Clio R3) + 2m28.5s

4 S.Gallagher/C.Mole (Citroen C2 S1600) + 6m32.5s

5 A.Burkart/M.Koelbach (Citroen C2 S1600) + 7m51.2s

6 S.Albertini/P.Capolongo (Renault Clio R3) +11m53.6s

7 H.Weijs/H. Van Goor (Citroen C2 R2 MAX) +13m37.0s

8 S.Ogier/J.Ingrassia (Citroen C2 S1600) +15m23.1s

Leg three, Sunday 18 May 2008 :

Day 2 : 258.65 km, 78.57 km competitive (5 stages, 3 different stage). Parc fermé out, service F (8h00/15 min) – SS13 : Monte Olia 1 (19.28 km) – SS14 : Sorilis 1 (18.66 km) – regrouping (9h51/20 min), service G (10h11/30 min) – SS15 : Monte Olia 2 – SS16 : Sorilis 2 regrouping (13h17/10 min), service H (13h27/10 min) – SS17 : Lisia Ruja (2.69 km) – Final podium Porto Cervo 14h30.