World Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen moved ahead of Sebastien Loeb into the lead of Rally Finland after setting the fastest time through Friday’s opening stage.
The Ford Focus RS driver was the first to tackle the 22km Jukojarvi test, which after Thursday night’s Super Special was the first proper forest stage of the event.
In bright and sunny conditions, Hirvonen completed 2.9sec ahead of Loeb, who was his closest rival. “It was very slippery in there, a bit damp with loose gravel, so it wasn’t perfect but it’s not bad. I’m happy so far - a good start to the rally,” said Hirvonen.
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Loeb reported a clean run in his C4 WRC. “It’s quite hard but I tried my best,” he said. “We’ll try to follow Mikko’s rhythm from now on - we’ll see.” WRC
With Hirvonen out fighting from the outset, the Finn quickly overcame the 0.9 disadvantage Loeb enjoyed overnight to take the rally leady by two seconds from the Citroen star. “I tried my best and I will now follow his rhythm now, we’ll see,” declared Loeb.
Sordo said he was happy with his pace notes and pace of his Citroen as he completed the stage 5.2 seconds off the pace of Hirvonen and was third fastest in the second C4 with Petter Solberg next up in his Citroen Xsara WRC with an identical time to Sordo. Rally-Live.com
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