Latvala extends his lead over Loeb
| By Matt Beer |
Friday, February 29th 2008, 22:58 GMT |
 Jari-Matti Latvala has edged away from Sebastien Loeb during the second loop of stages in Mexico.
Wins in SS5 and SS6 allowed Latvala to stretch his lead over the world champion to 9.6 seconds. Although this means that the Ford driver will run first on the dusty roads tomorrow, he has no concerns.
"I don't want to think about it too much," Latvala said when asked about the prospect of cleaning the road for his pursuers. "I will just drive, that's the main thing. Concentrate 100 percent on driving and see what the result is.
"I'm really enjoying it. The car is going so, so well. It's really easy to drive. We had a good test in France and got the set-up for the car, and it's worked here too."
Loeb admitted that he simply had no answer for Latvala's pace.
"I cannot go faster," he said. "I really tried hard and pushed to the maximum this morning, and there is nothing more to do.
"I think I did good stages with no mistakes, a perfect line and very fast everywhere, but the time is not there."
While Latvala continues to control the rally, his championship-leading teammate Mikko Hirvonen was delayed by a puncture after striking a rock in SS4.
Luckily for Hirvonen the air only escaped slowly, so he was able to reach the end of the stage before having to stop and change the wheel. He lost 40 seconds and fell from fourth to fifth, behind the two Subarus.
Third-placed Chris Atkinson is 22.4 seconds behind Latvala, having had a quick spin in the superspecial. The Australian reckons that small set-up changes would bring him much closer to the leaders.
"If we had the handling a little bit better I think we could be much quicker, but it's still a good day," said Atkinson, who felt he was fortunate to escape a brush with a large rock in SS5.
"I hit a rock in sixth gear, flat-out, with the front right tyre. If it had hit the sumpguard we would've crashed and totalled the car. But it hit the tyre, the tyre stayed up - I don't know how because the rock must have been a foot high. So good work (by) Pirelli."
Teammate Solberg, who was fastest in SS4, also had issues with rocks in the stages.
"I went off twice," he said. "The rocks were huge. There were two times I had to go off the road or I would've destroyed the car. We lost a lot of time but it was better to go carefully off the road than destroy the car on a big rock."
The high rate of attrition continued during the second loop, with Stobart Ford's Gigi Galli retiring after breaking his suspension in SS4.
Both Suzukis also had to pull out. PG Andersson - who had been running a strong sixth - developed an engine problem in the closing miles of the morning stages and was unable to rejoin after the midday service, while teammate Toni Gardemeister's car ground to a halt in the Alfaro stage. He had already lost 20 minutes with throttle problems in the morning.
Henning Solberg (Munchi's Ford) has now recovered to sixth after his earlier puncture, ahead of Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson and Federico Villagra in the second Munchi's entry.
Local privateer Ricardo Trivino and Junior class leader Sebastien Ogier complete the current top ten.
Leading positions after day one: Pos Driver Car Time
1. Latvala Ford 1h23:38.6
2. Loeb Citroen + 9.6
3. Atkinson Subaru + 22.4
4. P Solberg Subaru + 1:01.9
5. Hirvonen Ford + 1:10.6
6. H Solberg Ford + 2:43.6
7. Wilson Ford + 2:52.9
8. Villagra Ford + 5:30.0
9. Trivino Peugeot + 8:18.6
10. Ogier Citroen + 9:13.0
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