Canadian GP || June 9 || 14h00 (Local time)

SS11: Hirvonen up to second in Italy battle

“The stage went really well, I hope I can take some more time”

By Franck Drui

7 May 2011 - 12:35

Mikko Hirvonen has climbed from fourth to second on Rally d’Italia Sardegna.

Although the Finn was beaten to the fastest stage time by factory Ford team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, he was quicker than rivals Sebastien Ogier and Petter Solberg to move to within 35.4s of overall leader Sebastien Loeb, who is being hampered by cleaning the road of the loose-surface gravel.

“The stage went really well, I hope I can take some more time,” said Hirvonen.

Latvala was quicker than Hirvonen by one second to complete his hat trick of stage wins on Saturday morning.

Kris Meeke failed to start the stage after his MINI John Cooper Works WRC suffered a water leak on the previous test. However, his team-mate Dani Sordo holds sixth overall in the second factory machine.

Crews are now heading back to Olbia for the regroup and midday service. Stage 12, Coiluna 2, is due to get underway at 14:39hrs local time.

Standings after SS11:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	2h13m14.3s
02	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+35.4s
03	P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON	Citroën DS3 WRC	+37.1s
04	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+38.6s
05	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m16.9s
06	D. SORDO / C. DEL BARRIO	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+1m50.1s
07	O. TANAK / K. SIKK	FORD FIESTA S2000	+3m42.3s
08	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+4m30.7s
09	J. HANNINEN / M. MARKKULA	SKODA FABIA S2000	+4m35.6s
10	M. PROKOP / J. TOMANEK	Ford Fiesta S2000	+5m14.2s
11	A. ARAÚJO / R. MIGUEL	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+7m36.8s
12	K. AL QASSIMI / M. ORR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+7m49.7s
13	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+8m06.4s
14	N. AL ATTIYAH / G. BERNACCHINI	Ford Fiesta S2000	+8m11.9s
15	P. VAN MERKSTEIJN / E. CHEVAILLIER	Citroën DS3 WRC	+9m43.9s