Hirvonen encouraged by Sweden performance

Mikko Hirvonen can take away plenty of positives from his first podium with Citroen, and he believes it is the first of many with the French squad he joined this year.

Having trailed team-mate Sebastien Loeb during the first rally of this season in Monte Carlo, Hirvonen had the edge on the eight-time world champion from the very beginning of Rally Sweden. He eventually finished second, after fighting for the win over all three days. With just two stages to go, Hirvonen was separated from the lead by a mere eight seconds, following a puncture for Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala.

“I can’t be totally satisfied as I didn’t win but the result is a positive one,” said Hirvonen. “We worked well with the team and my feeling in the car has improved further. Although we are going to totally change surface for the next few rallies, all of this will be useful to me in the next event.”

Hirvonen’s result meant that he moved up to second place in the drivers’ championship, seven points behind Loeb.

The Finn’s co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen added: “On the one hand people think that we go well in Sweden, but on the other hand it was still only our second rally with the car. We go into each rally fighting to win, but this was definitely a good result.”