SS15: Hirvonen puts pressure on Sordo

Dani Sordo says he has more in reserve in the battle for third place on ADAC Rallye Deutschland after Mikko Hirvonen cut his advantage to 26.7s.

Sordo is chasing the MINI WRC Team’s maiden podium finish in the world championship. He started Sunday’s final five stages 33.1s in front of his factory Ford rival.

“It’s okay, I’m happy with the car and the feeling is nice,” said Sordo. “I can push a bit more but I don’t have any [split times in] the car. I have take care with the tyres, we will see.”

Hirvonen, who was fastest through the stage, said: “It’s a good start, not really enough but I will try to keep the pressure on him. He’s been in this situation before so you never know.”

Kris Meeke completed the stage with a rear-left puncture on his factory MINI.

“It’s a lottery out there, I’ve no idea what happened,” said the frustrated Briton, who has nevertheless managed to fend off Petter Solberg in the battle for fifth, despite setting a time 1.1s slower than the Norwegian following his deflation.

In the battle for victory, Sebastien Ogier was 4.7s slower than second-placed Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb. As a result his overall lead has been narrowed slightly to 1m06.6s.

“There were a few parts where it was a bit damp but it was very short,” said Ogier. “We went on soft tyres to avoid risks. We drove in the middle of the road.”

Loeb, who confirmed there had been no discussions among the Citroen team to move him back ahead of Ogier following his puncture on Saturday’s final stage, said: “We have to take care but the gap is too big so there is nothing to do.”

Henning Solberg’s hopes of snatching seventh from Kimi Raikkonen suffered a setback when he lost considerable time adapting to running on soft compound tyres for the first time.

Hirvonen’s Ford team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, who has restarted under SupeRally regulations following his crash on stage 13, was second fastest, 2.0s slower than Hirvonen.

Standings after SS15: