Tactical Hirvonen takes slim lead into final day
Mikko Hirvonen will take a slight lead into the final day of the Rally of Turkey despite failing to make the most of running second on the gravel roads today.
Hirvonen and his BP Ford team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala gifted the lead to Citroen's Sebastien Loeb at the end of the first leg in a tactical ploy to ensure the Frenchman would be tasked with the 'road sweeping duties' on day two.
Hirvonen hardly made the most of that advantage, however, as he built a 16-second lead over Latvala, with reigning four-time champion Loeb ominously placed 34.2secs off the lead.
Hirvonen, who trails Loeb by one point in the driver's standings, had stated at the start of the day that he had wanted to open up a lead of around 50 seconds before the end of Saturday's action.
However, Loeb showed his class to remain within touching distance of the leaders despite his disadvantage of running first.
"Yeah, it's going to be a big fight tomorrow," Hirvonen said. "I've been flat out all day, but I don't know if my lead is enough. Sunday's going to be a difficult day."
Hirvonen has struggled in the past two rallies when he was forced to tackle stages first, losing his drivers' championship lead to Loeb who has claimed victory in both Sardinia and Greece.
With that in mind the Frenchman is quietly confident he can overcome his deficit and clinch a hat-trick of rally wins.
"I've done everything I can so far; I've made no mistakes, the car has had no problems, and we've been flat out all the time," he said.
"Everything is possible tomorrow I think. It's going to be a lot of fun!" he said.
Henning Solberg finished the day in fourth place, more than two minutes off the pace, with Loeb's Citroen team-mate Daniel Sordo completing the top five.
