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Latvala willing to support Hirvonen

Jari-Matti Latvala is ready to sacrifice his own chances of a victory in the Rally Poland to help Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen's title tilt

The Ford drivers are both fighting for victory on the Mikolajki-based event, but with Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb out of the running following his accident this morning, the Finns are ready to play a team game on Sunday afternoon.

"It's a bit early to be talking about tactics now, we have a job to do to keep Dani [Sordo, Loeb's Citroen team-mate] behind us, but we are in a very good position to be one-two on Sunday afternoon," said Latvala, who was only 2.4 seconds behind Hirvonen at the lunchtime service.

"For now we need to be sensible, but, yes, I would be prepared for Mikko to win."

Ford team principal Malcolm Wilson said he was keen for Hirvonen to take the victory, and that he expected a nerve-wracking weekend.

"Both drivers know what we expect of them," he said. "I want Jari to monitor Dani's speed. It does make more sense for Mikko to win the rally, given his position in the championship, but let's not forget there's a very long way to go in this event. There's still two and a half days of rallying to come and I feel more nervous than ever right now."

Wilson added that he had no regrets at his decision not to switch Latvala and Hirvonen when the former won in Sardinia last month. Such a move would have offered Hirvonen two more points in the drivers' championship.

"I said then that there was more to that decision," said Wilson. "Look at what's happened since then. Okay, I might regret it at the end of the year, but for now, it [the win] helped Jari-Matti and it's really helped the team. That decision was about the longer term, the bigger picture - and it was the right one."

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