Scott Pedder said that he’s taken enough positives out of what proved to be a relatively short day to give him renewed confidence ahead of the longest day in the World Rally Championship tomorrow in Sardinia.
 

On the opening stage of the day at Rally Italia Sardegna, Pedder and co-driver Dale Moscatt once again found themselves enveloped in the dust of a competitor who had started on the road ahead of them. “I’m starting to wonder if we’ll ever have a stage where we don’t catch some one, get stuck in dust or have to slow down for someone else’s accident!” laughed Pedder.
 
“We caught the guy in front and trailed in his dust for about 10 kilometres,” he explained. “With about 3 kilometres to go he finally pulled over and we managed to get past.”
 
“On a positive note our split times before we got stuck in the dust were in the top five of WRC2, so we know the pace is there. Plus the changes we made between this event and the last in Portugal have made such a big improvement to the car!”
 
On the transport between the first and second stage of the day the starter motor in Pedder’s Fiesta stopped working, which led to Pedder and Moscatt having to push start the car at the start of the second stage.
 
To add insult to injury, arriving at a low speed right hand bend about 9.5km in, Pedder followed the line set by the cars in front and struck the leading edge of a low rock wall and instantly broke the suspension on his Fiesta.
 
“During recce the corner was covered in quite long grass, so I just didn’t note that there was anything on the inside of the corner to avoid. It’s my mistake, I used so many ‘don’t cuts’ in my notes for this rally and the one corner I didn’t note has caught us out,” Scott said.
 
Similar rock walls also managed to catch out leading WRC driver Robert Kubica and Skoda factory pilot Esapekka Lappi, both resulting in similar day-ending suspension damage.
 
“I had to check out the wall that ended our day and I could see the cars ahead of us had actually taken chunks out where they’d hit it too. It just seems that we hit it at an angle just enough to snap the suspension.”
 
With just fifteen minutes of late time to affect a repair, Pedder and Moscatt worked feverishly with the spare parts they were carrying in the car but to no avail, the damage too significant to overcome.
 
“The one side of me is very frustrated, because I’m a very competitive person,” added Scott. “On the other side though I can see we have the pace and the car has improved so much from Portugal.”
 
“It’s a long day tomorrow, the longest in the WRC since the Safari Rally in 2002, so we’ve still got a lot to look forward to. I’m just hoping for at least one stage where we can have a completely clean run and finally show what we are really able to do in this car!”
 
WRC2rResults after Leg One
1. Paolo Andreucci / Anna Andreussi (Peugeot 208 T16) 1h39m16.3s
2. Armin Kremer / Pirmin Winklhofer (Skoda Fabia R5) +1m26.3s
3. Yazeed Al Rajhi / Michael Orr (Ford Fiesta RRC) +1m33.4s
4. Yuriy Protasov / Pavlo Cherepin (Ford Fiesta RRC) +2m05.6s
5. Jan Kopecky / Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) +2m58.9s
22. Scott Pedder / Dale Moscatt (Ford Fiesta R5)

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