WRC - SS8: Latvala retakes the lead

Fastest time on the repeat of Finnskogen put Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala back in the Rally Sweden lead by 2.6 seconds over Mikko Hirvonen, as the former team-mates’ ferocious contest in the snow continued.

Latvala had led until the final stage before service this morning, when Hirvonen slipped ahead.

But after set-up changes at service, Latvala came back with a vengeance this afternoon, and on stage eight he took 3.7s out of the Citroen and reclaimed first position - despite feeling he could have handled the icy conditions better and being distracted by cars stopped on the stage.

Hirvonen was not surprised to lose the lead, having made set-up changes that did not pay off.

"That was not the best one," he admitted. "I did some changes to the car and it was not as good as before, so I took it a little bit steady.

"Jari-Matti will be in front of me a little bit now, but it’s okay, there’s still a long way to go."

One of the stopped cars that Latvala was worried he had been too distracted by was Dani Sordo’s MINI. The Spaniard, who had been running fifth, was parked on the stage with his car’s bonnet open, according to following crews, having been losing fluid from the John Cooper Works WRC before the stage start.

Mads Ostberg coped with brake issues to come through sixth quickest and maintain his overall third place - albeit now by only 0.9s over Petter Solberg, with the pair 26s off the lead.

Sordo’s exit meant Evgeny Novikov (M-Sport Ford) picked up fifth with less of a fight than he expected, and elevated Henning Solberg (Go Fast Ford) and MINI man Patrik Sandell’s close battle to a contest over sixth.

After his disastrous stage seven mistake, Sebastien Loeb was third quickest on stage eight, bringing his Citroen DS3 WRC up to eighth already as he passed Martin Prokop (Czech National Ford) and Eyvind Brynildsen (Adapta Ford). But the world champion said he had not been going flat-out.

"I didn’t have any reason to take big risks," said Loeb. "We lost too much in the stage before.

"We had a good rhythm. We’ll try to catch the drivers in front, but the task is now very big. It’s not maximum attack."