Latvala masters the muddy Grand Ballon

Huge numbers of spectators meant Friday’s final stage began almost one hour late, but for stage winner Jari-Matti Latvala it was certainly worth the wait.

After trailing in the wake of the four leading Citroens on SS6 and SS7, Latvala rediscovered his SS5 stage winning form and set the fastest time through the repeated Grand Ballon by 4.2sec.

At the stage end, Latvala said the twisty and muddy conditions which had led others to adopt a cautious approach had actually suited his Ford Focus RS WRC. “It seems that if it’s narrow and slippery everything works well,” he explained.

Latvala’s performance moved him up to fourth place, at the expense of Petter Solberg, and drew praise from Dani Sordo, who was third fastest through.

Mikko Hirvonen leapt from his car at the finish control to check his car’s front suspension. The Ford had a broken wheel but no serious damage. “We were lucky,” said Hirvonen. “We hit the mountain on one corner and then went off again straight after. From then on we took it steady.”

Sebastien Loeb set the second fastest time to maintain the overall rally lead. The Frenchman will carry a 22.7sec lead into Saturday’s competition.

Overall standings after SS8 - end of Day 1: