Eighty of the original 85 starters left Obihiro this morning shortly after 05.00 for one of the longest and toughest days' rallying of the FIA World Rally Championship season. Twelve competitors restarted under SupeRally rules after retiring yesterday and all faced up to a marathon 14 hours behind the wheel, with 10 more gravel speed tests covering 146.68km on today's agenda.
Last night's rain made conditions wet and slippery as drivers made the long journey north-east of Obihiro for the morning loop of four special stages. Overnight leaders Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen opted for BFGoodrich's extra-soft tyres, with a small cut carved into the inside, on their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car to provide maximum grip on the narrow and muddy forest tracks.
The BP-Ford World Rally Team duo began the day with a 10.2sec advantage over Sébastien Loeb and Hirvonen was equal second fastest on the opening 2.73km Rikubetsu test, just 0.1sec behind the Frenchman. The 27-year-old Finn then powered to fastest time through the 34.96km Puray to stretch his advantage to 10.6sec.
The following 20.75km Niueo turned the leaderboard of this 14th round of the championship on its head. Both Loeb and third-placed Jari-Matti Latvala slid off the road in the slippery conditions and retired from the leg, leaving Hirvonen to emerge from the dank forest with a 46.1sec lead over Dani Sordo. He stretched that to 50.5sec with second fastest time on the final stage of the loop, the 22.43km Sipirkakim.
"What a morning!" he said. "I was happy to be fighting with Loeb but he made a mistake and when I saw him in a ditch I slowed down. When I then saw Jari-Matti off the road as well I slowed even further because I didn't want to follow them. The conditions were very wet but I had good grip and the tyres worked well. Every corner was so slippery that it was impossible to relax for a second. It will be just as tricky on the repeat pass this afternoon.
"We're making small improvements to the Focus RS all the time and I feel comfortable with it and how it will react. I need to concentrate just as hard now, avoid any mistakes and find the right rhythm," he added.
