WRC / Argentina: Loeb and Hirvonen in a tenth

The delay by the organizers forced the crews to set off at night for the 19km remaining on the program for the first stage. Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën) was the quickest to overcome it and the Finn came back only a tenth behind Sébastien Loeb, still leader this evening. The Citroën drivers took advantage of this special to escape the pressure from Dani Sordo (Ford) who lost 20 seconds on the race lead.

Jari-Matti Latvala's replacement had complained before the start that the special was being maintained despite the delay by the organizers. “It’s not very good to have to compete in this night stage”, admitted the Ford driver who still preferred to start on hard tires to keep the soft compounds. ?Maybe they should have canceled it, we don?t have any notes scheduled for the night. With a 500km course, it?s not a big deal to lose 17.”

Dani Sordo is now 33 seconds behind the two Citroën drivers. Mads Ostberg (Ford) maintains his fourth place ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah (Citroën). Martin Prokop (Ford) occupies sixth position ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen and Sébastien Ogier (Skoda Fabia S2000).