WRC Rallyes - SS12 stage win for Mikko Hirvonen 31.01.2009: Hirvonen’s stage win - his first of the rally - moved him two seconds closer to Sordo on the overall standings, but he still trailed the Spaniard by 1m 15.7s. “The conditions are still tricky, but I won’t back off too much because I don’t want to lose my

Rally leader Sebastien Loeb’s run of eight consecutive stage wins came to an SS12 when he dropped around 15 seconds in an off-road excursion that left his C4 WRC with a mysterious vibration.

Loeb’s off, and a stall for Dani Sordo, enabled Mikko Hirvonen to take his first stage win of the event - although with the top three positions so well cushioned, their overall order was unchanged.

“The rain is easing a little but it’s still tricky and there’s lots of water on the road,” explained Loeb. “We got good information from our gravel crew but I still had a surprise in one section and went off a bit onto the grass. Now I have a vibration in the car - it’s maybe mud in the wheel, or it’s damaged. Maybe I have to change it, but it’s okay.”

Loeb went off about 20km from the start - close to where his team-mate had his own scare. “The engine stopped on a hairpin and we dropped about 10 seconds before we could get going again,” explained Sordo. “After that the feeling was fine because I was pushing on!”

Hirvonen’s stage win - his first of the rally - moved him two seconds closer to Sordo on the overall standings, but he still trailed the Spaniard by 1m 15.7s. “The conditions are still tricky, but I won’t back off too much because I don’t want to lose my driving rhythm. It was a steady drive but I’ll keep on going,” said Hirvonen.

Jari-Matti Latvala set the third fastest time despite completing the stage with a broken right-hand front wheel. “We made a small change to the set up by fitting a stiffer rear anti-roll bar,” said Latvala. “I was faster than this morning but I still have a safety margin. You need a lot of confidence on these roads.”

Chris Atkinson was fourth fastest and took another 20 second bite out of the gap to Henning Solberg. “We caught a big downpour but we had an okay run,” said Chris. “I’m not looking at the split times. I’m driving my own rally and learning the car.”

Sebastien Ogier also moved closer to the man in front of him - narrowing the gap on Matthew Wilson to just 1.3sec. “No problems in there - for me the priority is to finish the rally,” said Ogier. “Earlier I wanted to catch Henning but now that’s impossible - I just want to finish and get experience of the stages.”



- full results, videos and more on www.wrc.com  photo Willy Weyens
Photos on automobilsport.com under PHOTOS SLIDESHOWS - Photos-Ecards to follow