SS11: Leaders get ready to play tactics

Jari-Matti Latvala took his second stage win of the day to edge closer to a lead that no driver actually wishes to hold going into tomorrow. The leading four will now approach the final stage with some trepidation, knowing that today’s overall leader will be in the disadvantageous position of running first on the road on the final day’s stages.

“I’m getting the feeling, I think,” said the Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team driver. “The car feels really good, better than it did in the morning. It’s very important now to get tomorrow’s starting positions right. Maybe third on the road is the best position. Nobody really wants to be first on the road tomorrow.”

Latvala’s time of 11m48.2s, 2.2 seconds faster than the Citroen DS3 WRC of Sebastien Ogier, elevated him to second place overall. Ogier remains in the overall lead by 6.4 seconds.

“We’ve still got the longest stage of the day ahead and maybe the lead isn’t enough,” said Ogier. “We’ll make a decision [about tactics] at the last split there.”

Petter Solberg had taken the previous stage at a relatively conservative pace but he had to push hard here after stalling on the start line. Solberg is best placed to make a tactical call to slow down on the final stage today because his rivals for the overall lead are all running ahead of him on the road.

“We stalled on the start line for maybe seven seconds,” said Solberg. “I don’t know why. But we made the time back. We have to push now - we haven’t pushed properly all the time because we needed a good starting position tomorrow. But now we need to get closer.”

Solberg was still 3.5 seconds faster than Sebastien Loeb, who complained about a lack of grip and traction on the first run through this stage this morning.

“I’m struggling too on the surface of this stage,” he said. “I don’t why I was so much faster than him [Mikko Hirvonen] here this morning and yet now there’s hardly any difference. I tried to follow the line - maybe I did it too much.”

Loeb slipped to third, 7.1 seconds behind Latvala in the overall standings and 3.8 seconds clear of Solberg. Mikko Hirvonen, running first on the road and therefore encountering the worst of the loose surface material, is now 1m.08.7s behind the leader and may not see too much benefit from any tactical moves by the drivers ahead of him.

“We’re still losing time but I feel that the driving is going okay,” he said after finishing fifth quickest on the stage. “I don’t know if it’s the road cleaning or not but I’m doing all I can.”

Standings after SS11: