WRC – Rally Finland Friday Report : Latvala Takes the Lead for Ford
Ford Jari-Matti Latvala (above) ended the day with a 9.1 seconds lead over Citroen’s private entry Petter Solberg, and will go out 1st during the start during tomorrow’s special stages. It was a dramatic day for Latvala’s teammate Mikko Hirvonen after he crashed when in the lead at SS4.
Mikko Hirvonen thrilled the crowds during the superspecial stage of the 2010 Rally Finland.
Hirvonen rolled his car 5 times after he landed heavily after a crest, and lost control of the car. His car veered left, before sliding into a ditch at a very high speed and flipped 5 times before stopping in the middle of the road. Luckily, despite the horrific crash Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen escaped without any serious injury. Dani Sordo’s (below) 1st outing with the Citroen Junior team started very well after he secured 3rd during the opening stages, but he failed to keep up the momentum and fell behind Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb, and dropped to 5th at the end of the day.
The man who replaced Sordo in the Citroen main team, Ogier (above) started his debut as Loeb’s teammate by finishing ahead of the world champion. Ogier ended the day in 3rd ahead of Loeb in 4th. Loeb (below) recorded an average speed of 133kph when he won during SS10, a new record for Rally Finland.
Behind Loeb in 6th is Matthew Wilson (above) from Team Stobart M-Sport. Wilson’s teammate Henning Solberg (below) crashed when he landed on a ditch, rolling twice before coming to a halt upside down against a tree.
Four times world champion Juha Kankkunen (above) is 7th, ahead of another Finn Kimi Raikkonen (below). It was a very impressive run from the 51 year old, despite not taking part in the competitive WRC championship for a long time.
Tomorrow’s run consists of 8 stages, and showers are predicted at some of the stages in what will be a tough and challenging day for all the drivers involved. Jari-Matti Latvala will need to fend off his closest challenger Petter Solberg (below) if he is to secure his 1st ever Rally Finland victory.
Finn Mattias Thermann and Janne Perrala in the Ford Focus WRC during the superspecial stages.
Photo : Citroen WRC, worldrallypics.com, Tony Welam (pettersolberg.com)
