RallyRACC - Rally de Espana: Day 2 review

Sebastian Loeb continues to lead the RallyRACC – Rally de Espana after a good day in his DS3 WRC.

Loeb leads Jari-Matti Latvala by 27.6 secs going into Day 3 of the rally. Beginning the day with two stage wins, Loeb extended his lead to 36 secs over Latvala. However, on the very next stage, Latvala began to push and take time out of the seven times World Champion. Victory on SS10 and SS12, plus his SS9 win, took nearly 9 secs out of the rally leader. After the last stage, Loeb acknowledged the pace of the young Finn, congratulating him on his pace.

“Sebastian came up to me after the last stage to shake my hand and congratulate me on my time. It was a great feeling to have the seven-time world champion congratulate me for beating him on his favourite surface.” said Latvala.

Latvala revealed the secret to his new-found tarmac pace, saying: “My driving on this surface is improving all the time. It’s smoother and I used every centimetre of the road. I’ve never driven such a good car on asphalt as this Fiesta. It’s so stable and handled like a racing car. When it feels as good as that I have the confidence to drive as if I was on a race track. That was the best day of my career on asphalt.”

Loeb said he had a good day, and was surprised to find he was coming under pressure from Latvala, on the Frenchman's favourite surface.

“I have a good feeling and my car is going well,” said Frenchman Loeb. “I have a good rhythm but I am having to push because Jari-Matti is surprisingly fast on Tarmac. My lead should be enough tomorrow if I make no mistake.”

Still third, and nearly 2 mins off the lead, Mikko Hirvonen is coming under pressure from local hero Dani Sordo. Sordo narrowed the gap to Hirvonen throughout the day, even taking his first stage win of the rally on SS11, until Hirvonen took back nearly 5 secs on the days final test. 37.4 secs separates 3^rd and 4^th, a big gap ordinarily, but as the saying goes, in rallying it's never over 'till it's over!

Sebastian Ogier's fight for a podium after his puncture yesterday took another heavy blow after he suffered another puncture on the days opening stage. He fell down behind both MINI's, but took Kris Meeke for fifth on the very next stage. He now sits 1 min 12 secs behind Sordo, and 30 secs ahead of Meeke.

Meeke enjoyed a trouble-free day on-board his MINI, finding himself only slightly slower than his team-mate Sordo over most stages. Meeke entered the rally on the back of four retirements from four starts this year. A stuck throttle put him off he road in Italy, a blocked radiator put him out in Finland, electrical gremlins in Germany and a crash in France have so far stopped him from finishing. Before the rally, he was concentrating on finishing in Spain, but took a more balanced approach to the event, taking the pressure off himself. He now sits 6^th, 37.2 secs ahead of closest pursuer Mads Ostberg in 7th.

Ostberg, in what may prove to be his final World Rally of 2011, had been struggling with brake problems throughout the morning, but a visit to service and the M-Sport mechanics sorted that. 8^th and nearly 2 mins behind his Stobart Ford team-mate is Henning Solberg, who has been fighting a fever through the day.

Evgeny Novikov sits 9^th, 37 secs behind Solberg. The Russian suffered a puncture on SS10, and the rubber thrashing around at the rear of the caused a minor fire, which was extinguished rapidly by co-driver Denis Giraudet. Early morning understeer slowed Matthew Wilson, who sits 10^th, on course for more Championship points.

Petter Solberg and Kimi Raikkonen both elected not to restart, saving their cars for the season-ending Wales Rally GB. Raikkonen's SS3 problem was traced to a small fuel leak. Ken Block & Daniel Olivera both re-joined, well down the order in 31^st & 29^th, respectively.

Nasser Al-Attiyah still leads S-WRC, but by a scant 0.4 secs over Juho Hanninen. The former P-WRC Champion commanded a 20 sec lead over Hanninen going into SS10, but sliding off the road damaged his car's gearbox and oil cooler. Hanninen could have snatched the lead, but with over 100kms of stages between him and the 2011 S-WRC title, he decided not to push for the lead. Martin Prokop is third, 50 secs behind Hanninen. Craig Breen's fight for the podium was dealt a devastating blow when he broke a driveshaft 7kms into the days first stage.

“It was a very good morning because we won all the stages and progressed a lot on Tarmac,” said Al-Attiyah. “When we went off we damaged the oil cooler of the gearbox and we were actually lucky to come back onto the road. The car was not good after that and the gearbox temperature was quite high.” said Al-Attiyah.

11 secs separates Patrik Flodin and Michal Kosciuszko going into the rally's final day. Flodin has been struggling with his driving throughout the day, while Kosciuszko nearly ran out of brakes near the end of SS12, setting them up for an interesting day tomorrow. Benito Guerra suffered a flat tyre on SS7, losing 3 mins changing it, but he still maintains third. Martin Semerad broke a wheel on SS7, then crashed out on the next stage, SS8.