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SS8 : Hirvonen lands third stage best

As Ogier slows down

By Franck Drui

6 May 2011 - 18:37

Mikko Hirvonen has claimed his third stage victory of Rally d’Italia Sardegna to move from fourth to third in the overall classification in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Petter Solberg was second fastest and takes the runner-up spot from Sebastien Ogier, who elected to slow in order to secure a lower and more favourable road position for Saturday’s stages. He falls to fourth overall behind Hirvonen.

Sebastien Loeb was third quickest and will start day two with a lead of 33.2s in his Citroen DS3 WRC.

“This stage was more difficult compared to the others because there was a lot of road cleaning,” said Loeb. “It was very slippery but I lost some time and tried hard.”

Standings after SS8:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	1h27m47.0s
02	P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON	Citroën DS3 WRC	+33.2s
03	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+53.1s
04	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+55.5s
05	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m04.7s
06	D. SORDO / C. DEL BARRIO	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+1m33.2s
07	O. TANAK / K. SIKK	FORD FIESTA S2000	+2m36.0s
08	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+2m54.5s
09	M. PROKOP / J. TOMANEK	Ford Fiesta S2000	+3m01.7s
10	J. HANNINEN / M. MARKKULA	SKODA FABIA S2000	+3m19.8s
11	A. ARAÚJO / R. MIGUEL	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+4m30.1s
12	K. AL QASSIMI / M. ORR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+4m53.5s
13	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+5m39.2s
14	N. AL ATTIYAH / G. BERNACCHINI	Ford Fiesta S2000	+6m06.4s
15	B. SOUSA / A. COSTA	Ford Fiesta S2000	+6m21.5s