SS4: Ford drivers hit trouble

Ford’s bid to make up lost ground on ADAC Rallye Deutschland has suffered a setback after Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala both dropped time on the event’s fourth stage, the repeat of Ruwertal/Fell.

Hirvonen damaged his Ford Fiesta RS WRC’s suspension hitting a wall close to the start of the stage while an engine problem struck Latvala’s similar machine.

“It was my own mistake,” said Hirvonen. “I just went wide at the start of the stage, hit a wall and damaged the suspension.”

Latvala added: “We don’t know but it’s something related to the engine. Maybe three kilometres from the start it went onto three cylinders. Hopefully it’s just a spark plug. We have to carry on and see.”

In the battle for victory, Sebastien Ogier has slashed Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb’s advantage to 0.9s after setting the fastest time in his DS3 WRC. “It’s good and I am happy with that stage,” said Ogier, who was 3.5s quicker than Loeb. “It was dirty in some sections so I prefer to be cautious.”

Loeb said: “It was okay, I pushed really hard. There was a lot of dust everywhere and I don’t know if we clean a bit. I have to take big risks to do this time, it’s not easy.”

Dani Sordo completed the stage with the fourth fastest time in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC. As a result the flying Spaniard is 7.3s off a podium place. However, team-mate Kris Meeke was even faster, setting the third best time to close on Sordo in the overall classification.

Ex-Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen was an impressive sixth fastest in his ICE 1 Racing DS3 WRC. “The morning was difficult, I had a spin and we had the wrong tyres but now it’s getting better.”

Standings after SS4: