Zoom Not the best of week-ends for Sola

Dani Sola accomplished a few good runs at Belgium's Rally Ypres last week-end, but his participation came to an end following a silly accident at the start of the tenth stage. The rally only became worse for the Spaniard when he was informed of the passing away of Pep Bassas, one of his earliest supporters.

During the first stage at Ypres, Sola established a great result when he was fourth-fastest at the wheel of a Grande Punto Super 2000. Unfortunately, the Abarth Difisa Gaspa Team driver arrived late at the first checkpoint and received a ten-second penalty.

With the time gaps between the major IRC contenders always very tight, the penalty sent him down to 16th in the overall standings.

Like the other Abarth drivers, Sola had a few difficulties countering the apparent supremacy of the Peugeot 207 S2000 cars, formidable on asphalt.

"This first asphalt rally confirms that we will need to work again with the Abarth engineers because the Peugeots are about five tenths faster than us per kilometre," reported the Spaniard.

"What reassures me however, is that compared to the other Grande Punto drivers we were often in front," he added.

But Sola would not have the opportunity to prove himself all the way to the finish. Lining up for the tenth stage, he collided with Jasper van den Heuvel's Lancer. If the Mitsubishi driver was able to continue without much damage, Sola had to retire with a broken suspension, all due to a simple traffic accident.

"It's really a shame because we were going to take on the most specific stages of the rally and it was important to continue in order to improve our performances," he said. "We hope to analyse all the details and to improve the competitivity of the car before Rally Russia, which left me with good memories last year."

In addition to the deception of his retirement, the week-end brought sad news to Dani Sola when he was told that Pep Bassas passed away follwing a long illness.

"Pep Bassas was someone very important in my sporting career, he was the one who had me take the wheel of a Kit Car and WRC car," Sola related. "He was someone who counted a lot in the rally world and was a model for many young drivers who tried to follow in his footsteps. His loss is immense."

Daniel BASTIEN
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