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SS7: Puncture slows Hirvonen

Novikov rolls and retires

By Franck Drui

6 May 2011 - 17:21

Mikko Hirvonen’s hopes of winning Rally d’Italia Sardegna have suffered a setback after he picked up a right-rear puncture approximately 13 kilometres into 19.66-kilometre test and lost more than 50 seconds to leader Sebastien Loeb.

“It was my own mistake,” said Hirvonen. “I went a bit wide, hit a bank and had a puncture.”

With one stage of day one remaining Loeb now leads his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier by 33 seconds.

“I drive a good stage again but I prefer to be first on the road tomorrow with a big gap to the others behind me,” said the seven-time champion.

Petter Solberg was second fastest through the stage and is now 1.8s behind Ogier.

Mads Ostberg lost ground with a spin but moves into fifth after Evgeny Novikov rolled his Fiesta.

Standings after SS7 :

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	1h21m44.7s
02	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+33.0s
03	P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON	Citroën DS3 WRC	+34.8s
04	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+56.8s
05	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m01.4s
06	D. SORDO / C. DEL BARRIO	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+1m30.8s
07	O. TANAK / K. SIKK	FORD FIESTA S2000	+2m31.0s
08	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+2m50.0s
09	M. PROKOP / J. TOMANEK	Ford Fiesta S2000	+2m52.5s
10	J. HANNINEN / M. MARKKULA	SKODA FABIA S2000	+3m12.4s
11	A. ARAÚJO / R. MIGUEL	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+4m17.6s
12	K. AL QASSIMI / M. ORR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+4m43.0s
13	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+5m36.0s
14	N. AL ATTIYAH / G. BERNACCHINI	Ford Fiesta S2000	+5m38.7s
15	B. SOUSA / A. COSTA	Ford Fiesta S2000	+6m06.7s