Hirvonen crashes in Finland
Home hope Jari-Matti Latvala came through a dramatic day of
racing, which saw Mikko Hirvonen crash out in spectacular fashion,
to take over the lead of the Rally of Finland on Friday.
Latvala, who has never won his home rally in seven previous
attempts, took over the lead from Norway's Petter Solberg after
going fastest through the first Sirkkamaki stage in the afternoon
and continued to edge clear in his works Ford Focus.
His lead over Solberg's Citroen is just a slim one though, only
9.1sec, which will come under intense pressure on Saturday as
Latvala will have to run at the head of the field in the final
eight all-gravel stages.
"Running third on the road gave me a bit of an advantage today,"
said Latvala. "Maybe I took it too carefully at times but
we’ll try to keep up this pace tomorrow."
Solberg appears well placed in second, although the French
Citroen pair of Sebastien Ogier, who is 21.8sec off the lead, and
current championship leader Sebastien Loeb, 32sec behind the Finn,
are sure to turn the screw as well.
The biggest drama on Friday, however, centred on Hirvonen, who
was also vying for his first victory in his home rally, the eighth
leg of the 13-event 2010 World Rally Championship.
He led by 4.9sec after three special stages but then crashed
going into a bend shortly before the end of stage four.
His Ford Focus rolled over but Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo
Lehtinen emerged unscathed -- though they went to hospital for
checks.
"It happened so fast, there was nothing I could do," Hirvonen
told wrc.com. "We went straight into a bank and rolled straight in
the road, up the hill, for a long time.
"The speed wasn’t too much but at that speed I knew when
it landed we’d be lucky to stay on four wheels.
"The dream is over and it’s just disappointing but at
least we were on the pace before it happened. That’s good. A
crash like that is not going to distract me or scare me.
"It’s done and we’ll go to the next rallies and try
to go as fast as we did here."
