End of day two: top three reverse in NZ

In a dramatic finale to Saturday’s competition, both the Citroen Total and BP Ford Abu Dhabi teams played their tactical cards in an effort to give their lead drivers the best chance of success on Sunday’s final day.

Earlier in the day Loeb said he wanted a 20-second lead to counteract the road cleaning effect on Sunday, but near the end of SS13, when it became clear he wasn’t going to reach his target, the Frenchman switched to his alternative strategy and slowed before the finish line to drop all the time he had earned and slip four seconds behind Hirvonen.

"I didn’t want to slow down - for me it’s not good for the sport - but what can we do?" said Loeb. "We have regulations like this; my job is to win, so I try to do my best to win."

Loeb’s move was no great surprise but it wasn’t the end of the story. In an effort to give his BP Ford Abu Dhabi team-mate Hirvonen a cleaner road, Jari-Matti Latvala set a lightning quick time and leapt from third to first, with a lead margin of 9.3sec. "We thought that Ford might move Latvala ahead, so it wasn’t a surprise," said Loeb. But now the places are very close and anything is possible tomorrow. I’ll just do my best to finish first."

Latvala said we was happy to be leading the rally, but was aware of the problems the position would give him on Sunday as first car on the road. "I was expecting to be third after today - I wanted to catch Sordo and keep the pressure on Citroen - but in the end we made a team decision to push for the lead," said Latvala. "I think if you’re mentally strong and don’t think about it too much you can still go fast as first car; Sebastien has proved that it’s possible to make brilliant times from the position. Of course winning would be great - it’s been six months since Sweden - but I think everything will be open until the last minute."

Hirvonen said he had done all he could throughout the day and was happy with the day’s outcome. "There was so much loose gravel that we lost traction in all the acceleration and braking points," he explained. "I didn’t have any plan - I just had to wait and see what everybody else did. But we came through, we’re still second and the difference between the first three cars is not so big. My road position is okay - maybe Loeb’s is better - but I think it’s going to be a good fight tomorrow."

Citroen’s Dani Sordo ended the day fourth, 2.4 sec behind Loeb, but with the best road position of the group for tomorrow’s stages. "Today has been good, but now the most important thing is to finish the rally and get some manufacturers’ points," he said. "My road position is good, especially for Sunday’s first stage, so I’ll see what I can do there."

Francois Duval is fifth for the Stobart VK M-Sport team, 1min 15sec behind Sordo. "Today’s stages were faster than Friday’s but we didn’t take many risks, had no problems and now we’re in a good position," he said. Behind him, in sixth, is Urmo Aava, who had been involved in a close battle with Petter Solberg all day. "We had a good fight, even though we lost a little time earlier with a puncture," said the Estonian. "But that’s how it is sometimes and it’s still interesting. Tomorrow the fight will carry on and let’s hope we’re faster!"

Three seconds adrift of Aava, Subaru World Rally Team driver Solberg said his day had taken a turn for the worse after the midpoint service. "We were one second per kilometre faster his morning, but we changed a lot of things in service and after that the car wasn’t easy to drive," he said. "I had no confidence, especially when the road was slippery. The plan for Sunday is to catch Aava. But if I have another experience like earlier - when I lost 17 seconds to him in one stage - forget it. But we’ll try to improve."

Per-Gunnar Andersson ended the day eighth and in the final points scoring place in his Suzuki SX4 WRC. "We’ve had no dramas today, we’re just fine-tuning the set-up a little bit here and there," said Andersson. "The most important thing is to get the car to the finish. It’s hard not to push too hard, but I don’t want to make any mistakes."

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