A big opportunity for Ford

No one will know if Sébastien Loeb could have succeeded in his bet on the Sardinian roads. The winner of the first five events of the season suffered a puncture in the eleventh special stage. Despite a quick wheel change? in less than a minute and fifteen seconds? any chance of victory vanished.

Freed from Sébastien Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen are heading towards a first Ford double since the start of the season. The last 86 timed kilometers remain to be covered.

“It won't be easy tomorrow,” admits Jari-Matti, whose lead does not exceed ten seconds. ?I think I lost a little too much time today even though I only made one mistake, a spin in the afternoon. I think Mikko will attack very hard until the finish. »

Mikko Hirvonen also made no secret of his intentions: “I really want to win! I don't want second place. We will be in a good position at the start, so we will attack. »

Starting in fourth position, Sébastien Loeb continued to attack to get closer to Petter Solberg, third. With a new best time in the last special of the day, the championship leader fell to 2??2 behind the Citroën Xsara.

Behind this top 4, Evgeny Novikov is ahead of Matthew Wilson, Khalid Al Qassimi and Dani Sordo, slowed down today by a turbo problem.