Sebastien Loeb - Citroen C4 WRC - Citroen Total World Rally TeamKOURDALI, Cyprus : March 14, 2009 - Citroen C4 driver Sebastien Loeb will go into Sunday’s third and final day of the Cyprus Rally - the shortest of the event - with a lead of 49 seconds. But he could have had more if brake problems and a difficult road position hadn’t slowed him this afternoon.
In the morning’s damp and muddy stages, Loeb’s position as first car on the road wasn’t much of a handicap and he stretched his lead over chief rival Mikko Hirvonen by eight seconds to 1min 8sec.
But it was a different story in the afternoon when dry roads left the Frenchman struggling for grip and handed the advantage to those behind. His situation was further complicated by brake problems which forced him to slacken his pace on both afternoon stages.
“We tried to fix them after the previous stage but we still had problems with the balance and their temperature on this one,” Loeb explained after SS11. “The brakes reached 600°C at the rear and 200°C at the front so we had to drive very smoothly to keep the temperature down. Then, one kilometre from the end, we spun and stalled on a hairpin and I had to reverse to get going again. So okay, two very difficult stages in the afternoon, we lost some time, but we’re still in the lead and that’s the most important thing for the moment.”
Mikko Hirvonen - Ford Focus RS WRC - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally TeamFord’s Mikko Hirvonen was quicker than Loeb on five of the day's six stages but lost a big chunk of time on SS9. Things improved in the afternoon’s drier conditions and he capitalised on Loeb’s SS11 problems to reduce the gap by around 15 seconds.
“I learned how to drive - finally!” Hirvonen said after the final stage. “I’ve been doing this for years and I’m still learning! This last one went very well, but in the morning I couldn’t really do much - the conditions were so wet there was no way we could catch Sebastien. But our speed in these conditions could be good for the future - who knows? There’s still along day tomorrow and we’ll go flat out. Hopefully I can keep this rhythm for tomorrow morning and put some pressure on Sebastien. The gap is still very, very big so by driving alone I don’t think I can catch him, but you never know.”
Dani Sordo - Citroen C4 WRC - Citroen Total World Rally TeamCitroen’s Dani Sordo started the afternoon with Hirvonen’s third place in his sights, but in the dry conditions he was forced to switch to a defensive strategy as he found himself under attack from a hard charging Petter Solberg behind. Sordo will begin Sunday’s competition just 15.9 seconds ahead of the Norwegian, whose 2006 specification Xsara is suited with active front and rear differentials, outlawed on more recent machinery.
“It will be difficult tomorrow because the road is cleaning more and more and that’s very important for the traction,” said Sordo. “Petter has an old car but with the [active] differentials the grip it has is very good. But okay, we’ll see tomorrow.”
Petter Solberg - Citroen X'Sara WRC - Petter Solberg World Rally TeamSolberg was fastest on both afternoon stages and almost couldn’t believe it. “Bloody hell!” he said after his second win. “It suits this car much better when it’s dry like this, and I really, really had fun, I can tell you! It’s not perfect but it’s not bad. It’s been a long time since we’ve won stages like this and had such a good feeling.”
Responding to Sordo’s comment about active differentials, Petter said: “I asked for mechanical diffs before Rally Norway and I can’t get them yet. I really, really want to have them because Sebastien [Loeb] said the mechanical diffs are better on this car, and I have to trust him.”
Briton Matthew Wilson rounded off the top five after a trouble-free run in his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Focus. “It’s been an okay day. Hard, but enjoyable,” he said.
Day 2 : Top 20 - Overall Classification
Pos | No | Driver | Car | Stage | Pen | Total | Diff |
| 1 | 1 |  Sebastien LOEB (F) | CITROEN C4 | 3:33:43.8 | 0 | 3:33:43.8 | 0.0 |
| 2 | 3 |  Mikko HIRVONEN (FIN) | FORD FOCUS RS WRC 08 | 3:34:33.6 | 0 | 3:34:33.6 | +49.8 |
| 3 | 2 |  Dani SORDO (E) | CITROEN C4 | 3:35:19.8 | 0 | 3:35:19.8 | +1:36.0 |
| 4 | 11 |  Petter SOLBERG (N) | CITROEN XSARA | 3:35:35.7 | 0 | 3:35:35.7 | +1:51.9 |
| 5 | 5 |  Matthew WILSON (GB) | FORD FOCUS RS WRC 08 | 3:38:57.5 | 0 | 3:38:57.5 | +5:13.7 |
| 6 | 12 | Sebastien OGIER (F) | CITROEN C4 WRC | 3:39:26.6 | 0 | 3:39:26.6 | +5:42.8 |
| 7 | 7 |  Evgeny NOVIKOV (RUS) | CITROEN C4 WRC | 3:40:06.6 | 0 | 3:40:06.6 | +6:22.8 |
| 8 | 8 |  Conrad RAUTENBACH (ZW) | CITROEN C4 WRC | 3:41:07.3 | 0 | 3:41:07.3 | +7:23.5 |
| 9 | 9 |  Federico VILLAGRA (ARG) | FORD FOCUS RS WRC 08 | 3:42:44.7 | 0 | 3:42:44.7 | +9:00.9 |
| 10 | 14 |  Khalid AL QASSIMI (UAE) | FORD FOCUS RS WRC 08 | 3:43:13.4 | 0 | 3:43:13.4 | +9:29.6 |
| 11 | 147 |  Armindo ARAUJO (P) | MITSUBISHI LANCER EVO IX | 3:47:31.7 | 0 | 3:47:31.7 | +13:47.9 |
| 12 | 146 |  Patrik SANDELL (S) | SKODA FABIA SUPER 2000 | 3:47:48.2 | 0 | 3:47:48.2 | +14:04.4 |
| 13 | 144 |  Nasser AL-ATTIYAH (QA) | SUBARU IMPREZA N14 2009 | 3:48:34.5 | 0 | 3:48:34.5 | +14:50.7 |
| 14 | 133 |  Toshi ARAI (J) | SUBARU IMPREZA 2007 | 3:50:02.2 | 0 | 3:50:02.2 | +16:18.4 |
| 15 | 38 |  Martin PROKOP (CZ) | CITROEN C2 S1600 | 3:53:28.2 | 0 | 3:53:28.2 | +19:44.4 |
| 16 | 32 |  Michal KOSCIUSZKO (PL) | SUZUKI SWIFT S1600 | 3:55:34.7 | 0 | 3:55:34.7 | +21:50.9 |
| 17 | 139 |  Simone CAMPEDELLI (I) | MITSUBISHI LANCER EVO IX | 3:55:45.5 | 10 | 3:55:55.5 | +22:11.7 |
| 18 | 160 |  Charalambos TIMOTHEOU (CY) | SUBARU IMPREZA N12b | 3:55:55.7 | 0 | 3:55:55.7 | +22:11.9 |
| 19 | 4 | Jari-Matti LATVALA (FIN) | FORD FOCUS RS WRC 08 | 3:56:08.7 | 0 | 3:56:08.7 | +22:24.9 |
| 20 | 140 |  Andis NEIKSANS (LV) | MITSUBISHI LANCER EVO IX | 3:53:50.0 | 2:20 | 3:56:10.0 | +22:26.2 |
[Source : WRC, Cyprus Rally, CITROEN, FORD]
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