SS13: Hirvonen strikes back

Mikko Hirvonen trimmed 1.9 seconds from Jari-Matti Latvala’s Rally Sweden lead as the Citroen man went quickest on the Fredriksberg stage.

Latvala’s Ford Fiesta RS WRC had been inching away so far this morning, before Hirvonen stepped up his pace and got back within 18s of his rival in the overall standings.

"It’s very, very close. But I really love it," said Hirvonen. "It’s nice to have a good fight, and in a new car as well.

"I’m trying to take some time out of him and put some pressure on him. I’ve definitely been pushing really hard this morning. But there’s always a little bit more left..."

Latvala said stage 13 just had not been quite to his taste.

"I didn’t have a comfortable feeling, it felt very, very slippy and difficult to get the grip on this stage," said the rally leader.

"I took it a bit too steady at the beginning of the stage. I could’ve improved."

Making the stage even more promising for Citroen, Sebastien Loeb went third quickest, bringing him to within 17.7s of Henning Solberg’s Go Fast Energy Ford in the chase for sixth.

After his incident yesterday and spin this morning, Loeb said his ambition for the rest of the day was fairly straightforward: "Hopefully I can stay on the road a bit more now..."

Battle still rages between Petter Solberg and Mads Ostberg in third and fourth, with the Norwegian Ford duo now split by 6.1s after Ostberg went quicker again on stage 13 despite his continuing tyre mismatch issue following an earlier puncture.

Just outside the top 10, Sebastien Ogier arrived at the stage finish with a right front puncture on his Volkswagen Motorsport-run Skoda Fabia, allowing his team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen to get closer in their personal battle.