Miami GP || May 5 || 16h00 (Local time)

SS8: Latvala continues to pressure Loeb

He sets a time 1.1s longer than Loeb

By Franck Drui

22 October 2011 - 11:40

Jari-Matti Latvala continues to pile the pressure on Sebastien Loeb in the battle for victory on RallyRACC-Rally de Espana but once again was fractionally slower than the event leader through Saturday’s second test.

Latvala, in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, took 1.1s longer than Loeb to complete the Riba-roja d’Ebre run, a new stage for 2011. As a result his gap to the Citroen driver is now 36.0s.

MINI’s Spanish ace Dani Sordo continues to edge closer to third-placed Mikko Hirvonen after setting the third fastest time in his John Cooper Works WRC, 1.4s slower than Loeb. Sordo is now 49.4s behind Hirvonen.

Sebastien Ogier, in the second factory Citroen DS3 WRC, has reclaimed fifth from MINI’s Kris Meeke. The Frenchman is now 3.4s in front of his British rival heading to stage nine, the Punta de les Torres test, which goes live at 1133hrs local time.

Standings after SS8:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	2h17m49.1s
02	J. LATVALA / M. ANTTILA	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+36.0s
03	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m27.4s
04	D. SORDO / C. DEL BARRIO	MINI WRC	+2m16.8s
05	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+3m32.9s
06	K. MEEKE / P. NAGLE	MINI WRC	+3m36.3s
07	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+4m03.1s
08	H. SOLBERG / I. MINOR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+4m57.1s
09	E. NOVIKOV / D. GIRAUDET	Citroën DS3 WRC	+5m41.3s
10	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+6m53.7s
11	N. AL-ATTIYAH / G. BERNACCHINI	FORD Fiesta S2000	+7m23.8s
12	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+7m28.4s
13	J. HÄNNINEN / M. MARKKULA	SKODA Fabia S2000	+7m40.9s
14	M. PROKOP / J. TOMÁNEK	FORD Fiesta S2000	+8m31.0s
15	Y. LEMES / R. PEÑATE	SKODA Fabia S2000	+8m45.2s