WRC - Friday midday wrap: Hirvonen fights to the front

A spectacularly close-fought opening morning of Rally Sweden ended with Mikko Hirvonen emerging in a narrow lead over Jari-Matti Latvala.

In only his second FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia outing in a Citroen DS3 WRC, Hirvonen moved to the front by virtue of fastest times on stages four and five, having got ever quicker through the loop.

Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver Latvala had led through stages three and four, following a brief cameo at the front by Mads Ostberg’s Adapta Ford, but reckoned he was losing too much time with minor errors - which he felt were a mix of his set-up and over-exuberance. The gap between the former Ford team-mates at the front of the field is 2.9 seconds at present.

After leading at the end of stage two, Ostberg found his set-up less co-operative for the different conditions of stages three and four, before rebounding with the second quickest time on stage two. That allowed him to stay third, 10.3s off the lead, and just ahead of Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb and Ford’s Petter Solberg.

The latter pair were both ruing delays. Loeb picked up a 10s penalty on the way out of today’s first service when set-up changes over-ran following a late decision to take a second spare wheel, while Solberg was a close second behind Ford team-mate Latvala until spinning on stage four.

Dani Sordo - winner of last night’s superspecial in the lead MINI - remains a close sixth, sitting between the podium battle and M-Sport Ford’s Evgeny Novikov.

It was a tough morning for the young guns, with Citroen’s junior star Thierry Neuville running in difficult conditions first on the road after Paulo Nobre went off ahead of him. But Neuville was an impressive third quickest on the short SS4 and is 18th overall. Ford protege Ott Tanak is right back in 41st having had a lengthy spell off the road on today’s first stage.

In the Super 200 World Rally Championship, PROTON’s P-G Andersson is just 7.4s ahead of newcomer Pontus Tidemand, while Monte Carlo class-winner Craig Breen holds third. Two class frontrunners are already in trouble: reigning Production Car world champion Haydon Padden dropped eight minutes with a trip off the road, while Alister McRae’s WRC return with PROTON hit early disaster when he got stuck in a ditch and had to retire.