Hirvonen upbeat despite tough times

Despite struggling to find the rally-winning pace he started the season with, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen says he is confident there’s nothing wrong with his driving.

The Finn said he took a different approach to the Rally of Portugal and emerged from the Faro-based event happy with the way the sixth round of this year’s World Rally Championship had run for him. Hirvonen, who collected his second consecutive fourth place of the season in Portugal, is third in the drivers’ championship, 50 points behind Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb.

“I feel a lot happier with myself than after Rally New Zealand,” said Hirvonen. “I was struggling with the pace in Portugal, but I approached the rally a bit differently and still had a good time. I enjoyed driving and the car felt good, but we just weren’t there. In my own mind, I now know there’s nothing wrong, it’s just that we’re just not getting it at the moment.”

Hirvonen added that, while the coming asphalt rallies would be tough to win against a strong Citroen line-up, he felt more positive about the potential for winning the gravel rallies in Finland, Japan and Great Britain.

“I’m sure we will be more competitive on those three events,” said Hirvonen. “The surface is a bit softer and the tyre can bite into that surface. It’s not so crucial with this clean line all of the time. In Portugal we had a very hard surface and, for the first run, the tyres are spinning in the loose surface on the top and then on the second run through, the line is so narrow, you absolutely have to keep it in there. I’m more confident for the last three gravel rallies. I like them and I know them all really well.”