After a fast and pretty destructive Day 1, Finnish star Jari-Matti Latvala holds the overnight lead, 9.1 secs ahead of the flying Petter Solberg. The new edition to the Citroen Total World Rally Team Sebastian Ogier holds third ahead to team-mate Sebastian Loeb and Dani Sordo is fifth.
Local hero (literally, he lives in the rally's home town, Jyvaskyla) Mikko Hirvonen went on a flyer over SS2 and SS3, setting fastest time on both stages, but he rolled out of the rally spectacularly. The accident happened just after a right-hander, which was followed by a jump. Mikko came over the jump and put the back of the car into a ditch, which sent the car into a series of barrel rolls, wrecking the car. Mikko and Jarmo were ok, and Mikko described the crash as the 'biggest of his career'.
"It was the biggest accident, I have never had one like that before. It's so disappointing. We had a heavy landing and the car just shot straight off the road. It landed nicely in the middle of the road, but we went straight off.”
“There was nothing we could do. We had some steering lock on, but you had to have because we are flying sideways, but it pulled the car straight off the road. There was no problem with the car at all, it sometimes goes a bit stiff on the heavy landing, but there was nothing wrong with the car."
Hirvonen's accident came on his favourite part of the rally, a part he describes as being the best in the whole calender.
"Where I went off is the place in the whole world where I like to drive the most," he said. "There were lots of people watching and they said there was nothing different from last year. We then went straight to the bank and rolled, it rolled for a long time - all the way up the hill.”
“I was surprised at the way the car pulled so violently on the landing. We were going at 140km/h or something like that - but the speed wasn't too much. If the speed was too much we would fly to the bank. I knew when it landed that was it, the rally was over. We were both okay, but quite dizzy from the actual roll."
“The dream is over and it’s just disappointing. We definitely had the speed to win the rally. It’s a real shame but it happens. At least we were at a good speed and know we’re heading in the right direction. That’s good.”
However, Hirvonen has been quick to dismiss the crash, saying that hasn't scared him.
“A crash like that is not going to distract me or scare me. It’s done and we’ll go to the next rallies and try to go as fast as we did here. Petter [Solberg] and Jari-Matti [Latvala] are driving really well, really fast so it could have been a great rally. We have the speed now but I cocked it up on this one. There are still some rallies to go and we have to try and do as well as we can on those rallies. We were leading here and I want to get up there as soon as I can. We’ll see about [winning in] Germany but for sure we’ll try.” said the Finn.
Team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala starts Leg 2 first on the road, which will prove a hindrance, if the predicted rain doesn't come: “Running third on the road gave me a bit of an advantage today. Maybe I took it too carefully at times but we’ll try to keep up this pace tomorrow.”
PSWRT driver and team owner Petter Solberg was happy with his performance over the course of the day.
“I’m very happy with the day. Second in the classification and fastest Citroën is actually better than I expected. I didn’t push too much today, it was much more important to stay on the road and not getting any punctures.”
“I did loose some time at the Myhinpaa stage, as I didn’t do that stage last year, and it is a really tricky stage, but that was expected. I know I can be much faster, and will push a lot more on tomorrows stages, not only to keep the others behind, but will chase for Latvala also. I am very comfortable, confident and relaxed,” said the Citroen privateer. “I am not taking any big risks.”
Petter's chef's have rewarded him for his performance over the stages of Day 1. Here's what is on the menu:
Finnish meatballs
Dauphinoise potatoes
garlic and spinache courgettes
pepper sauce
sweetcorn
Desert: Strawberry trifle.
Dani Sordo was keeping up with Solberg and Latvala, but dropped to fifth after Citroen Total WRT drivers Sebastian Loeb and Seb Ogier jumped ahead.
Both Henning Solberg and Khalid Al-Qassimi followed Hirvonen by rolling out of the rally on SS8 and SS6, respectively. Al-Qassimi was in good company, with Jari Ketomaa, Joonas Lindroos, Albert Llovera and Mika Turkki all crashing out on the same stage.
Stobart M-Sport Ford driver Matt Wilson had a relatively trouble-free day, the only complaint was a small handling problem during the day. Another Stobart M-Sport Ford driver, 4-times World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen, holds seventh, but is being hunted by Kimi Raikkonen, the same Raikkonen who he vowed to beat during the rally.
IRC Series leader Juho Hanninen leads the S-WRC by 41.1 secs to Matti Rantanen with P-G Andersson third, 13 secs behind Rantanen.
The protege of Markko Martin, Ott Tanak, leads the P-WRC with Patrick Flodin over a minute-and-a-half off the pace. Pirelli Star Driver Haydon Paddon sits third. Paddon had the honour of opening the proceedings of the 60th anniversary of the first running of the Neste Oil Rally Finland (when it was first run, it was known as the 1000 Lakes Rally) on Thursday night.
The highest Irish driver is Craig Breen, who is in 21st o/a and is the 10th highest S2000 car. For all other Irish Competitors, see below:
Chris Patterson 2nd o/a
Michael Orr crashed out
Alan Harryman 79th o/a
Stephane McAuley 65th o/a
Killian Duffy 67th o/a
No comments:
Post a Comment