End of Day 1. Petter Solberg leads by 1.3 seconds to Jari-Matti Latvala with Sebastian Ogier in third. Dani Sordo is fourth with Mikko Hirvonen fifth, Matthew Wilson sixth, Sebastian Ogier seventh, Henning Solberg eighth, Jari Ketomaa ninth & Xavier Pons tenth.
Sebastian Loeb sits in seventh for two reasons, a) road sweeping duties & b) he hit a bridge on SS4. 4 kms into the stage, at a part of the stage where the road tightened going into a right-hander over a bridge, Loeb braked too late & the back end broke away, hitting the bridge. Loeb said that it was a less than 50 kph mistake, but it caused enough damage to cause his drivers door to open later on in the stage. Although all hopes have gone of a win, but the Frenchman is still positive about a podium finish. “It’s going to be tough but we will try,” he said.
Matt Wilson set 2nd fastest time on SS2, but his phenominal pace took a downturn on SS3 when his drivers side window came in round him. “What a nightmare,” Wilson said. “We were on a long straight and it just fell down. It’s never happened before and it’s not like we went through a compression or anything.”
Ford No.1 Mikko Hirvonen said that he was not happy with his pace. “I have been pushing really hard and haven’t made any mistakes but I just couldn’t go any faster,” said Hirvonen. “It has not been a good day.”
Jari Ketomaa leads the S-WRC class in his Fiesta S2000 from Xevi Pons with Martin Prokop in third, completing a lock-out of the podium places for the 'Blue Oval'. Andorran Albert Llovera completes the S-WRC catagory after Janne Touhino retired.
In the P-WRC, Hayden Padden leads after local hero Richard Mason retired after the Kiwi put his Impreza into some trees. Emma Gilmore holds second, 2 mins behind Padden, & Kingsley Thompson rounds out a local 1-2-3.
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