SS12: Dramatic stage win for Hirvonen

Mikko Hirvonen has claimed his first stage victory for Citroen in the World Rally Championship powered by Nokia after going fastest through Friday’s penultimate stage to move into fourth overall.

The Finn, who switched to Citroen from Ford at the end of last year, made the most of his decision to run a full set of studded tyres on the ice-coated test.

He is now 36.3s behind third-placed Petter Solberg after the Norwegian struggled through the stage without the luxury of studded tyres on his Ford Fiesta.

“This time we definitely had the right tyre choice and for once we were brave enough in this car,” said Hirvonen. “It was very, very slippery but there’s still two and a half days to go so it’s game on.”

Rallye Monte-Carlo leader Sebastien Loeb completed the stage in a time of 15m51.4s, 3.7s slower than Hirvonen while young Corsican driver Pierre Campana impressed with the third fastest time, a 16m05.1s, in his factory MINI, which used a full set of studded tyres.

“For sure it was the right choice of tyre [with full studs] but even with that it was very difficult to keep the car on the road,” said Loeb. “The conditions changed a lot since my [safety] crew passed but I knew I had the best choice so I just went through. I’m happy to be at the end.”

Despite electing not to use studded tyres for added grip, MINI driver Dani Sordo was able to move back ahead of Solberg in the overall standings. His advantage heading back to service in Valence is 1m00.6s.

“It was really, really tricky,” said Sordo, who ran with a full set of ‘winter’ tyres. “We didn’t take tyres with studs and lost a lot in the last part where there was snow and where it was really bad.”

Solberg started the stage on a high following his fastest time on the previous run but was soon in trouble on stage 12.

“I had slicks on the rear and no studs on the front and there was so big aquaplaning from the start,” said Solberg. “I almost went off, it was unbelievable. There was so much water and black ice. It was much worse than I expected.”

Henning Solberg completed stage 12 with damage to the rear of his Go Fast Energy Fiesta following an impact.

PG Andersson continues to lead the Super 2000 World Rally Championship despite his PROTON’s front windscreen demister failing on the previous test. The Swede said the fault meant it was difficult for him to see the road.