2009 WRC : Day 1 - Hirvonen leads Rally Portugal

Mikko Hirvonen - BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT

MALHAO, Portugal : April 03, 2009 - BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team driver Mikko Hirvonen leads Rally Portugal by 15 seconds after an action-packed first day of competition in the Algarve.


Hirvonen moved into the lead on the first of the afternoon’s stages, having made adjustments to the set-up of his Ford Focus at the midday service. “I wasn’t so happy with my driving in the morning, so we changed the rear diff and that helped,” he said. “I pushed as hard as I could this afternoon but destroyed my rear tyres on the last two stages. Without that I could have been another 10seconds ahead.”

With a lead of 18sec over his main championship rival, Sebastien Loeb, Hirvonen decided against dropping places on the final stage to secure a more advantageous road position on Saturday. Instead the Finn will be first to tackle tomorrow’s six loose gravel stages.

“We’ll see if it’s enough of a lead to keep Sebastien behind, but it’s going to be difficult,” admitted Hirvonen. “I think road position will have a big part to play in this rally over the next two days but I’ll try my best.”

Spaniard Dani Sordo is second in his Citroen Total team C4 WRC. “I’m happy to be here because I’m not first on the road tomorrow!” he said. “This afternoon’s loop of stages was harder for me and the car. On the last stage especially my rear tyres were worn, so the car was moving around a lot.”

Sordo led the rally briefly this morning but dropped two spots on SS5 when he repeated a mistake made by his team-mate Sebastien Loeb. “I don’t know what happened, but like Seb I overshot under braking and then had to wait until the dust cleared before I could get going again.”

Loeb ended the day 3sec behind Sordo, but with the bonus of a good road position for Saturday. “Apart from the mistake on the first junction, today has been quite okay,” he said. “Maybe our suspension was too hard on the second loop, but it wasn’t too bad. The road was cleaning a lot and I think it was worse in the afternoon. Tomorrow’s roads I think will be about the same. I expected some strategy from Mikko at the end but finally he kept his first position. I’d prefer him to be where he is with an 18 second lead, than have him 1 second behind.”

Subaru Impreza driver Marcus Gronholm holds fourth, 7.9sec behind Loeb, having made a strong return to form after almost 18 months away from the WRC. “When it’s rough I’m not so comfortable yet with the suspension, so on the second pass I was a little too hesitant, but it’s okay and from time to time it’s fun!” he said.

Gronholm was second going into the final stage and had intended to drop just behind Loeb in the standings to secure a better road position for day two. However the stage didn’t go quite according to plan.

“The last stage wasn’t so good,” he laughed. “We got caught in the dust cloud from Khalid [Al Qassimi] ahead, then had a front-right shock absorber problem, and when I tried to do some tactics I didn’t quite succeed. We slowed before the yellow board, but the distance to the finish was a little bit longer than we expected! Tomorrow it’s going to be difficult to keep the pace of Seb and Mikko but we’ll see.”

Petter Solberg rounds off the top five places in his privately entered Citroen Xsara WRC. “This morning the car was set-up too stiff and we lost too much grip and traction,” he said. “We also lost out on the faster sections against the more powerful cars, but at least we could try and do something about the traction. We softened the dampers in service, and then some more later on. Straight away we were much better. But with less engine power I’ve been pushing like a maniac all afternoon!”

Day 1 : Top 20 - Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff. next	Diff. 1st
1	3	Mikko HIRVONEN	1:24:12.6	0.0	0.0
2	2	Dani SORDO	1:24:27.6	+15.0	+15.0
3	1	Sébastien LOEB	1:24:30.6	+3.0	+18.0
4	15	Marcus GRONHOLM	1:24:36.5	+5.9	+23.9
5	11	Petter SOLBERG	1:24:54.8	+18.3	+42.2
6	12	Sébastien OGIER	1:25:16.6	+21.8	+1:04.0
7	5	Matthew WILSON	1:25:27.2	+10.6	+1:14.6
8	7	Evgeny NOVIKOV	1:25:46.3	+19.1	+1:33.7
9	6	Henning SOLBERG	1:25:46.4	+0.1	+1:33.8
10	16	Mads OSTBERG	1:26:54.7	+1:08.3	+2:42.1
11	8	Conrad RAUTENBACH	1:27:51.5	+56.8	+3:38.9
12	9	Federico VILLAGRA	1:28:15.0	+23.5	+4:02.4
13	147	Armindo ARAÚJO	1:32:14.7	+3:59.7	+8:02.1
14	145	Patrik FLODIN	1:32:29.6	+14.9	+8:17.0
15	149	Eyvind BRYNILDSEN	1:32:46.5	+16.9	+8:33.9
16	65	Mark TAPPER	1:33:18.0	+31.5	+9:05.4
17	131	Martin PROKOP	1:33:24.7	+6.7	+9:12.1
18	140	Andis NEIKSANS	1:34:13.6	+48.9	+10:01.0
19	67	Dennis KUIPERS	1:34:24.6	+11.0	+10:12.0
20	75	Hermann GASSNER JUNIOR	1:34:39.6	+15.0	+10:27.0

[Source : WRC, CITROEN, FORD]