2009 WRC : Day 2 - Ford drivers in control at the end of day two

Jari-Matti Latvala - Ford Focus WRC - BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

MONTE LERNO, Italy : May 23, 2009 - BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen remain on course for a one-two finish on Rally d’Italia tomorrow, after holding their lead positions throughout today’s competition and watching the challenge of their main rival fall away.


The anticipated threat to the Ford drivers from Sebastien Loeb came to an end on the day’s penultimate stage, when the Frenchman had to stop to change a tyre and dropped back by one minute.

The battle between the Ford drivers looks set to be a classic, with each wanting to take victory. Latvala will carry a 9.9sec advantage over his team-mate into Sunday’s short final day, but will have to cope with the disadvantage of running as first car through the five loose gravel stages.

Earlier today Jari said he thought a 25 second lead was enough to counteract the day three road cleaning effect. He almost had that going into the final stage, but gave away nearly 10 sec to Hirvonen. “On the last stage my tyres were finished,” he said. “It won’t be easy tomorrow because I expect Mikko will push and I’ve lost a little bit too much today. Overall though it’s been a good day. We had a really, really tough battle in SS11 and I made a little mistake when I spun on a junction. But that’s the only mistake I’ve made.”

With the opportunity to pull back a few points in his title battle with Loeb, Hirvonen said he was after a maximum ten points tomorrow. “I definitely want a win, not a second place,” he said. “We have an okay starting position so hopefully we can fight.”

Petter Solberg ended Saturday’s competition third overall in his 2006 spec Citroen Xsara, 1min 02sec behind Hirvonen. But if the Norwegian is to hold the position to the end he’ll have to keep Sebastien Loeb behind. And with the gap between them just 2.2sec, Petter isn’t counting his chickens. “It’s been a good day for me, but Sebastien will be on a big attack now so it will be difficult,” he acknowledged.

Loeb meanwhile seemed philosophical about his rare case of bad luck on SS11 - an incident which is all but certain to end his record-breaking run of six WRC wins. “Now I’ll try to catch third, it’s the only thing I can do,” he said at the end of SS12. “This rally has been a difficult one from the start. It hasn’t gone as we wanted it to and we had some bad luck. Our tactics yesterday were good, but with the puncture today this is all we can do.”

After a solid day in his C4 WRC, Citroen Junior Team driver Evgeny Novikov rounded off the top five places, 1min 31sec behind Loeb.

After an incident packed afternoon, the last stage of the day brought one final WRC casualty. Adapta Subaru Mads Ostberg retired his car 1.5km before the finish line.

Day 2 : Top 20 - Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff. next	Diff. 1st
1.	4	Jari-Matti LATVALA	2:58:03.5	0.0	0.0
2.	3	Mikko HIRVONEN	2:58:13.4	+9.9	+9.9
3.	11	Petter SOLBERG	2:59:16.1	+1:02.7	+1:12.6
4.	1	Sébastien LOEB	2:59:18.3	+2.2	+1:14.8
5.	7	Evgeny NOVIKOV	3:00:49.5	+1:31.2	+2:46.0
6.	5	Matthew WILSON	3:03:06.3	+2:16.8	+5:02.8
7.	10	Khalid AL QASSIMI	3:05:01.4	+1:55.1	+6:57.9
8.	2	Dani SORDO	3:07:22.3	+2:20.9	+9:18.8
9.	21	Mads ÖSTBERG	3:10:32.5	+3:10.2	+12:29.0
10.	6	Henning SOLBERG	3:10:33.6	+1.1	+12:30.1
11.	146	Patrik SANDELL	3:12:58.2	+2:24.6	+14:54.7
12.	150	Nasser AL-ATTIYAH	3:13:21.7	+23.5	+15:18.2
13.	147	Armindo ARAUJO	3:14:07.8	+46.1	+16:04.3
14.	63	Jarkko NIKARA	3:14:20.4	+12.6	+16:16.9
15.	32	Michal KOSCIUSZKO	3:14:27.5	+7.1	+16:24.0
16.	38	Martin PROKOP	3:14:44.1	+16.6	+16:40.6
17.	8	Conrad RAUTENBACH	3:15:14.0	+29.9	+17:10.5
18.	145	Patrick FLODIN	3:16:33.9	+1:19.9	+18:30.4
19.	31	Aaron Nicolai BURKART	3:20:26.9	+3:53.0	+22:23.4
20.	132	Bernardo SOUSA	3:20:56.1	+29.2	+22:52.6

[Source : WRC, CITROEN, FORD]