2009 WRC : Rally Ireland - Day 2

Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena - Citroen Total World Rally Team

DAY2 : January 31, 2009 - Citroen dominates at end of Day Two

Mikko Hirvonen is stranded in third in his BP Ford Abu Dhabi, a full 2:30 behind. Henning Solberg lies fourth, Chris Atkinson fifth, while in a major move, Monte Carlo Rally winner Sebastien Ogier has pushed his Citroen up into sixth ahead of the Stobart Ford of Matthew Wilson.


There's been a significant development in Group N, as Shaun Gallagher has overtaken long-time leader Alan Ring of Kerry, but only by five seconds - overall, Gallagher is 13th, Ring 15th.

Top Irishman overnight will be Eamonn Boland in ninth, after Gareth MacHale suffered turbo and oil pressure problems on the day's final stage, Stage 14, seeing him drop to twelfth - brother Aaron lies tenth overall.

Niall McShea has gone off again though.

Background :

Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

SS12: Hirvonen helps himself to stage win
Loeb's uncharacteristic spill coupled with his team mate Dani Sordo's stall, allowed Mikko Hirvonen to win his first stage and peg back the front two - albeit only marginally.

“The rain is easing a little but it’s still tricky and there’s lots of water on the road,” Loeb said. “We got good information from our gravel crew but I still had a surprise in one section and went off a bit onto the grass. Now I have a vibration in the car - it’s maybe mud in the wheel, or it’s damaged. Maybe I have to change it, but it’s okay.”

Loeb went off about 20km from the start - close to where Sordo endured a scare. “The engine stopped on a hairpin and we dropped about 10 seconds before we could get going again,” Sordo said. “After that the feeling was fine.”

Hirvonen’s stage win moved him two seconds closer to Sordo on the overall standings, but he still trails second by 1m 15.7s.

“The conditions are still tricky, but I won’t back off too much because I don’t want to lose my driving rhythm. It was a steady drive but I’ll keep on going,” said Hirvonen.

Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

Jari-Matti Latvala set the third fastest time despite completing the stage with a broken right-hand front wheel.

“We made a small change to the set up by fitting a stiffer rear anti-roll bar,” said Latvala. “I was faster than this morning but I still have a safety margin. You need a lot of confidence on these roads.”

Chris Atkinson was fourth fastest and took another 20 second bite out of the gap to Henning Solberg.

“We caught a big downpour but we had an okay run,” he said. “I’m not looking at the split times. I’m driving my own rally and learning the car.”

Sebastien Ogier narrowed the gap on Matthew Wilson to just 1.3sec.

“No problems in there - for me the priority is to finish the rally,” said Ogier. “Earlier I wanted to catch Henning but now that’s impossible - I just want to finish and get experience of the stages.”

Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena - Citroen Total World Rally Team

Loeb and Sordo pull further away

Loeb’s Citroen Total team-mate Dani Sordo is still second, having completed the 25.46km stage 9.7sec slower.

Overall, Mikko Hirvonen still lies third but he fell more than 20 seconds further behind Sordo after his Ford Focus had power steering problems. With little chance to fix the system before Special Stage12, he is expected to lose more time.

Citroen Junior Team driver Chris Atkinson set the third fastest time and narrowed the gap to Henning Solberg’s fourth place overall from 1min 19.4sec to 54.1sec.

The rain continues to fall heavily, making the drivers understandably cautious.

"I have to stay concentrated, there is a lot of standing water on the road," said Loeb.

Meanwhile, Estonian Urmo Aava was forced to improvise to deal with the conditions.
"I am cleaning the window using a sock with a stick inside it," he said.

Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

Loeb begins where he left off

Loeb sped through Sloughan Glen in Co Tyrone on this morning's first stage, opting like everyone else for Pirelli’s winter tyres to cope with rain-lashed roads.

“That was a difficult stage,” said Loeb. “Okay, on these tyres it wasn’t as bad as the first one yesterday but I was still aquaplaning a lot. The final section was very slippery - lots of grip changes and patches that felt like black ice. We went well at the start but when I saw I was faster than the others I took it a little easier.”

His Citroen team mate Dani Sordo, who was second overnight, maintained that position but professed himself in awe of Loeb's driving.

“Sebastien is incredibly fast - I don’t understand! I was taking a lot of risks, aquaplaning all the time. It was really difficult,” he said.

Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

BP Ford Abu Dhabi team driver Mikko Hirvonen was third fastest, six tenths of a second slower than Sordo.

“It’s very difficult like yesterday, and we have some condensation on the inside of the screen which is disturbing me,” he said. “We were quite close to Dani’s time - at one point two or three seconds up on the splits. I’ll try and chase him. We’ll see.”

Australian Chris Atkinson set the fourth fastest time but said he would be taking it a lot easier today after the lessons learned yesterday.

“After hitting a power pole at 100kph yesterday I took it a bit carefully in there,” he said. “I saw Conrad [Rautenbach] off the road and then got stuck behind Sebastien Ogier and couldn’t get past. But in these conditions it’s difficult, so I can’t blame him.”

Rautenbach retired after sliding into a ditch on a left-hand corner at the 19.6km point. Ogier arrived at the finish control 2min 40sec slower than stage winner Loeb with his C4 WRC missing its front bumper and lamp pod and his co-driver’s door flapping open. Ogier and Rautenbach’s problems slipped them down the standings, allowing Atkinson to move up to fifth overall.

Stobart Ford driver Henning Solberg held fourth place overall despite losing time with a right-hand front puncture. “We had it for a long time, which was a shame. I don’t know what I hit - nothing I think - I was taking it slow, but that’s how it is,” he said.

Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud - Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team

Day 2 : Driver Overall Standing

Pos.	No.	Driver/Car	Stage Time	Diff Prev	Diff Ldr
1	1	S. LOEB	2:20:02.8	0.0	0.0
2	2	D. SORDO	2:21:11.9	1:9.1	1:09.1
3	3	M. HIRVONEN	2:22:33.7	1:21.8	2:30.9
4	6	H. SOLBERG	2:26:00.2	3:26.5	5:57.4
5	7	C. ATKINSON	2:26:04.9	4.7	6:02.1
6	11	S. OGIER	2:29:16.2	3:11.3	9:13.4
7	16	M. WILSON	2:29:54.1	37.9	9:51.3
8	9	K. AL QASSIMI	2:31:52.8	1:58.7	11:50.0
9	17	E. BOLAND	2:32:43.2	50.4	12:40.4
10	20	A. MACHALE	2:33:43.2	1:0.0	13:40.4
11	5	U. AAVA	2:34:19.7	36.5	14:16.9
12	18	G. MACHALE	2:34:54.0	34.3	14:51.2
13	63	S. GALLAGHER	2:37:48.7	2:54.7	17:45.9
14	19	T. MCNULTY	2:37:53.2	4.5	17:50.4
15	65	A. RING	2:37:54.0	0.8	17:51.2
16	62	G. JENNINGS	2:40:26.0	2:32.0	20:23.2
17	4	J. LATVALA	2:43:05.5	2:39.5	23:02.7
18	31	A. BURKART	2:43:13.7	8.2	23:10.9
19	38	M. PROKOP	2:44:40.7	1:27.0	24:37.9
20	33	S. BERTOLOTTI	2:51:14.8	6:34.1	31:12.0

[Source : 2009WRC, FORD ,CITROEN, Official Rally Ireland]