A good morning for Ogier in Rally Turkey

Ten stages after he took the lead of the Rally of Turkey, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier remains out front at the end of a tough second morning on the Istanbul-based event.

Citroen Junior Team driver Ogier was fastest on one of the loop’s four tests, but he still managed to double his advantage (to 10 seconds) at the top of the table. Behind him, Petter Solberg’s Citroen C4 leap-frogged his way up the leaderboard having started the day fourth.

Citroen sent its drivers out with their front Pirelli tyres scrubbed, hoping the slightly worn covers would offer more grip on the asphalt sections of the morning’s stages - in the same way they had on last year’s Cyprus Rally.

The split times just after the end of the 13.49 kilometres of sealed surfaces indicated that the French team had made the right call - just. Ogier was flying, 4.2 seconds up on Hirvonen when he hit the dirt, while Dani Sordo (0.1s) and Sebastien Loeb (0.5s) were only just ahead of the fully treaded Ford.

Hirvonen reaped the benefits of running four new Scorpions on the all-gravel second stage as he moved past Sordo and into second place, but he was forced to relinquish that spot when Solberg went fastest through the final stage before service.

Ogier was pleased with his morning, saying: “I’m not sure if we made the right decision with the tyres, it’s hard to say. But on the whole, the morning has been good for us.”

After a measured approach through the opening stages to conserve his tyres, Solberg let rip in Riva, the stage all the drivers feared. At 27.17km, SS13 (repeated as SS17) is the longest of the event, with almost two kilometres of asphalt at the start. Solberg was consistently quickest through the splits and smiled broadly at the end of the stage.

“I did a good job in this stage,” said the new second placed man. Hirvonen arrived in service just 3.7 seconds behind the Norwegian, but with Loeb only four tenths adrift of his Focus.

Acknowledged as the world’s finest asphalt rally driver, Loeb hadn’t enjoyed his time on the sealed surfaces through the morning. “There are stones all over the road,” he said. “It was very difficult.”

His Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo also endured a tough morning, dropping from second to fifth by the time lunch was served. Neither Citroen driver suffered as much as Ford’s number two, Jari-Matti Latvala, who rolled his Focus in the first stage, dropping nine minutes. He continued, but slowly after the car’s turbo had been damaged.

Suzuki driver Aaron Burkart continues to lead the Junior World Rally Championship race with a comfortable lead over Alessandro Broccolo (Renault), with Kevin Abbring (Renault) half a minute behind the San Marino driver in third.

Leading Pirelli Star Driver Ott Tanak moved up to ninth overall in his Mitsubishi Lancer, despite a damper problem on the final stage of the morning. Three of the other PSD crews: Nick Georgiou, Alex Raschi and Hayden Paddon all re-started this morning, while Peter Horsey’s car was lost to a fire yesterday.