Although it may have lacked any twists and turns, day two of the Wales Rally GB enabled the Citron Total World Rally Team crews to consolidate their positions. Sbastien Loeb and Daniel Elena are third overall, a few seconds behind Petter Solberg, while Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen are still fifth.
Like the first leg, day two began with a long road section to the Builth Wells region. Once there, there was no let up for the competitors, who completed the Crychan, Epynt and Halfway in little over an hour.
Very determined to keep up the pressure on the front two, Sbastien Loeb set the fastest time on Epynt. Picking up where he left off on the next stage, he closed to within 3.9s of Petter Solberg by the end of the morning. I had set off with four soft tyres and two hard tyres as spares, but the ground hadnt dried out enough for me take advantage of the spare tyres, detailed the eight-time World Champion. The grip was nevertheless better on the last two tests. My tyres took a beating but they held on in there! It seems that were more competitive in these conditions. Im going to keep fighting to try and close the gap to Petter.
After showing his dismay at the stop control for SS7, Mikko Hirvonen was then all smiles again, as he noted an improvement in his performances at the end of the morning: I was able to use all six Michelin Latitude Cross soft tyres chosen for this section. I really pushed very hard, perhaps even harder than in Finland! Were still in it, ready to seize the slightest opportunity.
With no rain clouds around in the Welsh skies, the sensible tyre choice for the second loop seemed to be a mix of soft and hard Michelin tyres. Although Petter Solberg responded to Sbastien Loebs attacks, the no.1 Citron DS3 WRC driver remained in touch, just 6.4s behind the Norwegian. I managed my tyres as efficiently as possible during the afternoon, he commented on his return to Cardiff. I lost two or three seconds on the second loop, but I'm still in the running for second place. As I often say when I have a bit of a lead on the Saturday evening, the rally isnt finished yet! And even if I finish third, that wouldnt be a bad result in terms of the World Championships
Mikko Hirvonen, who had preferred to take five soft tyres, also made it to the end of what was a pretty frustrating day:I did my best, I never stopped pushing. We have to keep working to try and understand why we arent quicker intricky, low-grip conditions. Although Im thirty or so seconds behind stberg, I have to keep pushing, because Tnakisnt that far behind me
Obviously, this wasn't the day we had hoped for, concluded Yves Matton, Citron Racing Team Principal. There isclearly something that we havent understood, but the crews and the technical team are all determined to makeprogress together in these conditions which we are only experiencing now and again. At the same time, our rivals havehad a perfect rally so far. We still have a full day of racing tomorrow in which to improve our positions.
NEUVILLE AND AL-ATTIYAH AVOID THE PITFALLSInsofar as the top 13 in the overall standings has remain unchanged since the end of SS5, Thierry Neuville and NasserAl-Attiyah still lie in 8th and 13th positions respectively. For Thierry and his co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul, the day got off toan strange start, with quite a lot of mud splashing into the inside of the no.8 DS3 WRC: It took a little while to findthe hole through which we were getting splashed so unpleasantly After that, I had to adapt constantly to thechanging conditions. As I felt good on the Epynt stage, I pushed a little more and I set good times.
Between the fog and the extremely slippery braking areas, it wasnt always a barrel of laughs this morning,commented Nasser Al-Attiyah. On the other hand, I am pleased with the second loop, even though I was slightlyhampered by dust kicked up by Paulo Nobre. I have the feeling that I made good progress and my times were prettypleasing. My aim is to make it to the end of the rally.
OVERALL STANDINGS1 Latvala / Anttila Ford Fiesta RS WRC 2:18:05.32 Solberg / Patterson Ford Fiesta RS WRC +24.53 Loeb / Elena Citron DS3 WRC +30.94 stberg / Andersson Ford Fiesta RS WRC +49.95 Hirvonen / Lehtinen Citron DS3 WRC +1:22.46 Tnak / Sikk Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1:34.47 Novikov / Minor Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1:50.98 Neuville / Gilsoul Citron DS3 WRC +3:25.99 Wilson / Martin Ford Fiesta RS WRC +4:39.810 Prokop / Hrza Ford Fiesta RS WRC +5:29.213 Al-Attiyah / Bernacchini Citron DS3 WRC +7:43.6
