Hirvonen closes on Japan victory

The Ford and Citroen number twos are separated by 49.9 seconds as they head into the last four stages of the weekend.

Hirvonen had stretched his lead to 41 seconds in this morning's first stage, with Sordo then regaining some ground by winning SS22 Panke Nikorpet, only to lose another 11 seconds to the Finn in Penke 1.

"It's very good, I've managed to build the gap a little bit," said Hirvonen. "Four stages to go and there's going to be lots of rocks, but it's looking good now."

Henning Solberg continues to cruise to a comfortable third place for Stobart Ford. With a three minute gap behind him, the Norweigan can afford to be very cautious today.

"I am very nervous, so I just take it steady," Solberg said. "I just want this third place after all this driving on tarmac. I really need it."

The battle for fourth, fifth and sixth remains extremely close. Fifth-placed Matthew Wilson (Stobart) gained 14 seconds on Luis Perez Companc during the course of the morning, but Manfred Stohl's OMV Kronos Citroen is gaining on both. Companc will take a 7.8-second advantage over Wilson into the deciding loop, with Stohl a further 22 seconds adrift.

"I was too cautious, I have to go faster on the second pass," Perez Companc admitted after seeing his margin over Wilson dwindle.

Companc's Munchi's Ford teammate Federico Villagra is still a distant seventh, followed by local Group N driver Katsuhiko Taguchi and Production WRC class leaders Gabriel Pozzo and Takuma Kamada.

Sebastien Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala and Xevi Pons all restarted under superally regulations this morning, rejoining the action in 38th, 39th and 50th positions respectively. The reigning champion has fared best of the trio so far, going quickest through both Rera Kamuy and Penke.

Latvala had a time-consuming spin in SS21, while Pons went off the road in the next test and lost a further three minutes having damaged the rear of his Subaru on a tree.

Pons' teammate Petter Solberg is also still running via superally following his leg one gearbox problems, and is now on course to get back into the top twenty by the end of the event.

Leading positions after SS23:

Pos  Driver         Car         Time
 1.  Hirvonen       Ford        2h54:45.6
 2.  Sordo          Citroen     +    49.9
 3.  H Solberg      Ford        +  3:20.9
 4.  Perez Companc  Ford        +  6:13.4
 5.  Wilson         Ford        +  6:21.2
 6.  Stohl          Citroen     +  6:43.1
 7.  Villagra       Ford        +  9:41.9
 8.  Taguchi        Mitsubishi  + 16:55.1
 9.  Pozzo          Mitsubishi  + 18:25.0
10.  Kamada         Subaru      + 20:04.1