SS7: Puncture slows Hirvonen
Novikov rolls and retires
Mikko Hirvonen’s hopes of winning Rally d’Italia Sardegna have suffered a setback after he picked up a right-rear puncture approximately 13 kilometres into 19.66-kilometre test and lost more than 50 seconds to leader Sebastien Loeb.
“It was my own mistake,” said Hirvonen. “I went a bit wide, hit a bank and had a puncture.”
With one stage of day one remaining Loeb now leads his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier by 33 seconds.
“I drive a good stage again but I prefer to be first on the road tomorrow with a big gap to the others behind me,” said the seven-time champion.
Petter Solberg was second fastest through the stage and is now 1.8s behind Ogier.
Mads Ostberg lost ground with a spin but moves into fifth after Evgeny Novikov rolled his Fiesta.
Standings after SS7 :