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Hirvonen vows to go flat out for WRC crown today
publication date: Oct 25, 2009
 | | | Citroen driver Sebastian Loeb is waking up today
and facing the prospect of a record 6th World Rally Championship being
clinched in Wales.
The Frenchman started Saturday’s
stages on the Rally of Great Britain little more than 5 seconds ahead
of the man who currently leads the series by a single point, Mikko
Hirvonen, but ended the day over 30secs ahead.
On the opening
stage of the day, Rhondda Forest , the Finn further reduced Loeb’s
advantage to less than three seconds. But the reigning champion hit
straight back taking 10 seconds off Hirvonen on each of the next two
stages to return to Cardiff for the lunchtime service halt with a
comfortable buffer.
With the same three stages repeated in the
afternoon, Hirvonen (above) was once again quickest through Rhondda but wasn’t
able to match Loeb’s pace for the rest of the afternoon.
With his lead
now extended to more than 30 seconds, Loeb commented “I am really
happy; it’s been a really good day, especially with those two stages in
the morning. We have had a very good drive with no mistakes, and are
here with a good lead, and are ready for tomorrow.”
A downbeat
Hirvonen hasn’t given up all hope of claiming the title that he has
fought so hard for all season long, saying “It’s definitely not been a
good day and I don’t understand why it hasn’t gone as I’d hoped.
Tomorrow is the last day of this year as far as I am concerned so I
will just have to go flat out and see what happens.”
Behind the
leading duo, third place is held by Loeb’s Spanish team-mate Dani Sordo
who demoted Petter Solberg from that position on the opening stage of
the day. Solberg and his co-driver Phil Mills from Newtown survived an
excursion into a deep ditch in the afternoon to hold onto fourth spot.
Aberdovey’s
Tom Cave is still battling on despite rolling his Fiesta twice on
Friday. His recovery was hampered, however, by gearbox problems.
Carmarthen
’s Gareth Roberts looks set to clinch the International Fiesta Sporting
Trophy alongside his Irish driver Craig Breen. Gareth’s brother Dai,
meanwhile, has guided his driver Tom Haines from Pendoylan who is just
4 months into his rallying career to 44th place overall.
Today
sees competitors tackle 4 stages in Port Talbot and Rheola before
returning to Cardiff Bay at 2.30pm for the podium ceremony. |
Day 2 leaderboard |
| 1. S Loeb/D Elena | | Citroen C4
| 2hr 32min 21.4sec
| | 2. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen | | Ford Focus RS | 2hr 32min 51.6sec | | 3. D Sordo/M Marti | | Citroen C4 | 2hr 33min 41.5sec | | 4. P Solberg/P Mills | | Citroen C4 | 2hr 34min 05.5sec | | 5. S Ogier/J Ingrassia | | Citroen C4 | 2hr 36min 43.0sec
| | 6. H Solberg/C Menkerud | | Ford Focus RS | 2hr 37min 44.2sec | | 7. M Wilson/S Martin | | Ford Focus RS | 2hr 38min 51.4sec | | 8. J-M Latvala/M Anttila | | Ford Focus RS | 2hr 40min 23.9sec | | 9. C Rautenbach/D Barritt | | Citroen C4 | 2hr 44min 21.5sec | | 10 A Burkart/M Kolbach | | Citroen C4 | 2hr 48min 49.6sec | | | | | |
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