SS17, Osor 2: Panizzi blitzy

Rally leader Didier Auriol set a comparatively conservative sixth fastest time through the stage, but barring disasters the win looks to be his. Panizzi too is well set for second place.

Bugalski's Citroen team has appealed against the two minute penalty imposed its driver after SS15, but it is believed that the best they can hope for is a reduction of the penalty to one minute. If they achieve that, Bugalski would be up into third place again, but he would still have to make up almost 10 seconds on Panizzi over the final stage to stop a Peugeot one-two.

Tommi Makinen and Bugalski in third and fourth places are set to hold station unless Citroen's appeal is upheld.

Freddy Loix continues to run quickly in the second Mitsubishi, another third fastest stage time has brought his advantage over sixth place Carlos Sainz to 15.1s, which should be enough to ensure the Belgian fifth place.

Richard Burns' seventh fastest time brought him marginally closer to sixth place Carlos Sainz, but seventh place Francois Delecour was quicker than the Briton over the stage, to put seventh place a little further out of the Subaru man's reach.

Crowd congestion on the stage brought a decision by the organisers to suspend competition for all cars behind 10th-placed Bruno Thiry and award them the same stage time as the Skoda man.


Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, 8m10.9s
Philippe Bugalski, Citroen, 8m13.0s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, 8m14.3s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, 8m14.5s
Francois Delecour, Ford, 8m16.2s
Didier Auriol, Peugeot, 8m16.5s


Didier Auriol, Peugeot, 3hr24m09.9s
Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, +27.7s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, +1m01.5s
Philippe Bugalski, Citroen, +1m37.2s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, + 2m12.1s
Carlos Sainz, Ford, +2m27.2s
Francois Delecour, Ford, +2m39.3s
Richard Burns, Subaru, +2m51.5s
Simon Jean-Joseph, Peugeot, +4m35.3s
Bruno Thiry, Skoda, +5m45.1