Rally leader Sebastien Loeb set the fastest time though Saturday’s opening stage and reckoned that running as first car on the road was no worse than going second.
With two metre snow banks either side of the twisty, ice-covered road, the Mountain stage resembles a 24.36km bobsleigh track. It’s one of the fastest and most extreme challenges of the World Rally Championship - and a firm favourite with drivers.
Loeb will tackle all of Saturday’s stages first, after he was gifted a slim rally lead last night by Mikko Hirvonen, so the Finn had a swept racing line to follow on each stage. Loeb, however, felt there was little to be gained by running second.
“I was flat out all the time, and the split times with Mikko were the same,” he said. “The conditions are very, very nice and I made no mistakes. It’s great fun to drive like that. On this stage the surface is completely ice. There is no difference for Mikko, I think.”
Hirvonen completed the stage in the second fastest time, seven-tenths of a second slower than Loeb but more concerned about the pace of his own team-mate behind. “With Sebastien it’s a close fight, but somehow I have a feeling Jari-Matti will be fast,” he said. “It’s enjoyable to drive this stage, and the car worked well, but I didn’t get the perfect lines and sometimes I was braking when I didn’t need to. Perhaps I wasn’t quite awake.”
Fortunately for Hirvonen, Latvala was also struggling to get into the groove. Jari-Matti set the third fastest time but was 14 seconds slower than Mikko. “I just really didn’t find the right feeling,” he explained. “The grip was amazingly good and the stage was absolutely fabulous, but I was braking too much. I only need to look in the mirror to see who is to blame. It’s okay though.”
Dani Sordo said his C4 WRC was moving about a lot on the fast section but he did enough to stay fourth in the overall standings. However Petter Solberg, who was fifth overnight, dropped down to seventh after a slow stage in his Xsara. “I tried my best but the time wasn’t so good,” he said. “Maybe the car has some more to give, I don’t know, but on the very fast stages this is the best we can do for the time being.”
Skoda driver P-G Andersson moved up to fifth and felt there was more to come from his Fabia WRC. “I’m not happy with that,” he said at the finish. “We can do much better than this.” Stobart Ford driver Henning Solberg set the fourth fastest time and moved up a place to sixth. “It’s not much, but it’s okay,” he said.
Citroen Junior Team drivers Sebastien Ogier and Evgeny Novikov both experienced problems. Ogier reported a mysterious lack of power in his C4 WRC, while Novikov collected a 1min time penalty for leaving service late.
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