2008 Jordan Rally winner Mikko Hirvonen is hoping that he & Ford will be back to their best after a soul destroying Rally Mexico, where they were left behind by the flying Citroens.
Hirvonen & fellow Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, or any of the Ford drivers could not match the phenominal pace of the French cars, who took their first 1-2-3 podium lock-out since Sebastian Loeb led home Colin McRae & Carlos Sainz at the 2003 Rallye Monte Carlo.
Since the South American event, Hirvonen & Latvala have both completed gravel tests in Sardinia, with Hirvonen covering 778km (483 miles) & Latvala covering 367km (228 miles).
Hirvonen said: "We've analysed the reasons why we weren't as competitive as we had hoped on the last round in Mexico and tried a few options during our test in Sardinia this week. I'm confident we'll be fully competitive in Jordan,"
"The surface is hard and it feels like driving on asphalt. There will be loose gravel on the surface for the first pass through the stages, so the car will need a slightly soft set-up. But when the stages are repeated and the roads are clean the set-up will be harder, almost like we use on asphalt. There are no ditches there and in some bends it's possible to make big cuts, so we can't make the car too low. It's a compromise set-up between gravel and asphalt”
"It's the most difficult rally of the year on which to make pace notes. It's fast and high speed sections are punctuated by small crests. But suddenly the rhythm can change and you come over a crest to find a series of hairpin bends. There are no trees or bushes in the desert to use as sight lines so the notes must be pin-point accurate.
Jari-Matti Latvala completed the rally in seventh two years ago, after being in the top three for most of the rally & fighting with Aussie Chris Atkinson, who drove for Subaru at the time.
"In 2008 the roads had a fine layer of sand lying on top of a hard, smooth base and it made them slippery during the first pass," said Latvala, who hopes to celebrate his 25th birthday in style on the final day of the rally. "The sand was swept away and in the second pass the roads were so hard and grippy that you could see black braking marks from the tyres on the surface - just like asphalt. It has rained hard there recently so I expect the surface might be a little softer and more loose this year.
"The roads are man-made in places and it means there is no natural flow to them so they are difficult to follow. They often turn immediately after a crest and I was nearly caught out on a few occasions two years ago. My pace notes were not accurate enough and I need to improve them on the recce,"
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