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

Ogier leads after Thursday’s Super Specials

Hirvonen holds second place, with Sordo third and Latvala fourth

By Franck Drui

9 September 2010 - 13:10

Sebastien Ogier holds a slender overnight lead of Rally Japan after going fastest on Thursday evening’s opening two stages.

The rally got underway at the Sapporo Dome Super Special, with drivers racing head-to-head over two passes of the 1.57km circuit, which included sweeping hairpin bends and a table-top jump.

On the first pass, run as SS1, the Frenchman, driving for the Citroen Total team in Japan, was 0.5sec quicker than his closest rival Dani Sordo.

On the second pass he beat his nearest challenger, Kimi Raikkonen, by eight-tenths. Ogier will carry a two second lead into Friday’s competition, which is based on gravel forest tracks near the city.

Two time Japan winner Mikko Hirvonen holds second place, with Dani Sordo third and Jari-Matti Latvala fourth. Kimi Raikkonen, who crashed his Citroen C4 at Thursday’s Shakedown, is fifth.

Overall standings after SS2 - end of Day 1:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	Sébastien OGIER	Citroën C4 WRC	2m43.2s
02	Mikko HIRVONEN	Ford Focus WRC	+2.0s
03	Dani SORDO	Citroën C4 WRC	+2.1s
04	Jari-Matti LATVALA	Ford Focus WRC	+2.3s
05	Kimi RAIKKONEN	Citroën C4 WRC	+2.3s
06	Sébastien LOEB	Citroën C4 WRC	+2.4s
07	Federico VILLAGRA	Ford Focus WRC	+4.6s
08	Henning SOLBERG	Ford Focus WRC	+5.7s
09	Petter SOLBERG	Citroën C4 WRC	+5.7s
10	Matthew WILSON	Ford Focus WRC	+6.6s
11	Khalid AL QASSIMI	Ford Focus WRC	+8.3s
12	Jari KETOMAA	Ford Fiesta S2000	+12.7s
13	Bernardo SOUSA	Ford Fiesta S2000	+13.7s
14	Martin PROKOP	Ford Fiesta S2000	+13.9s
15	Toshi ARAI	Subaru Impreza WRX	+16.0s