SS15: Hirvonen keeps Loeb on his toes

Mikko Hirvonen showed he has not given up on his hopes of beating Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb to Brother Rally New Zealand victory as he concluded day two with the fastest time on the leg-closing Girls High School stage.

The result brought the gap between the two Citroens down to 6.4 seconds again, but Hirvonen was just pleased to still be pushing Loeb so hard with over half the rally gone - and happy that the team was giving him the freedom to do so even with a one-two looking very likely.

"Here we are two days down and still in a proper fight so I’m having a good time," said Hirvonen.

But despite his excitement over the current battle, the Finn admitted that his challenge may well fade if the rain arrives with a vengeance as expected on Sunday morning, for Loeb has a better selection of tyres for the predicted weather.

"One thing is that I don’t have any soft tyres left and I know Sebastien has a few, so it’s going to be difficult to fight against him tomorrow," Hirvonen conceded.

Hirvonen was only 0.1s faster than Jari-Matti Latvala on stage 15, as the Ford driver continues to push despite knowing that he needs attrition ahead to make any progress at all from his current eighth place.

Latvala’s Ford team-mate Petter Solberg remains third, a comfortable distance ahead of M-Sport’s Evgeny Novikov. The Russian is being caught by team-mate Ott Tanak again after the latter lost ground with a stage 14 spin just as he was becoming a threat.

Thierry Neuville (Qatar Citroen) continues to hold Dani Sordo’s Prodrive MINI at bay in sixth, while Armindo Araujo has managed to hold on to ninth in the Team Portugal MINI despite suspension problems leaving him potential vulnerable to the chasing Ken Block’s Monster Ford.