Hirvonen takes lead on final morning

The Finn passed overnight leader Dani Sordo as the Citroen driver struggled with running first on the road, and then benefited when his Ford teammate Jari-Matti Latvala suffered suspension damage.

The Ford duo had controversially slowed in yesterday's final stage to allow Sordo back in front and force the Spaniard to clear the loose gravel from the roads today.

The tactic appeared to pay off when Latvala and Hirvonen beat Sordo by 12 seconds in the morning's first stage and moved back up to first and second. But Latvala then dropped out of contention with broken suspension, while Sordo shrugged off the disadvantage of running first and ended the morning just 7.7 seconds behind Hirvonen.

Sordo had predicted that he would drop half a minute to the Fords in the 41-kilometre Jordan River stage, as the recce had suggested that loose gravel would be a particular issue here.

But Sordo was only two seconds slower than Hirvonen in the stage, as the Finn also found the roads extremely slippery.

"I have some big moments in there, it was so slippery," Hirvonen said. "I just couldn't stay on the line at all. I couldn't have gone any faster, but we're still leading so it's okay."

Sordo said he was determined to challenge Hirvonen for the victory this afternoon, but was concerned about the amount of time he had lost in Kafrain, today's first stage, which is used again this afternoon.

"There was a lot of gravel for the first car," Sordo said. "I'll be pushing, but I lost a lot of time in the first stage and I don't know why. We'll try."

Subaru's Chris Atkinson is now up to third after Latvala's problems. The Australian is three minutes behind the leaders, and more frustrated by the Impreza's lack of pace than pleased about the prospect of a third consecutive podium finish.

"We need to improve things to be on the pace, so I can't say we're happy," he said.

Latvala had ended Kafrain with a 0.3-second lead over Hirvonen, but lost 50 seconds in the next stage with broken suspension. He attempted to repair the problem and struggled on through the following road section and the Jordan River stage, dropping another ten minutes and falling to eighth place.

The Finn wasn't the only top six runner in trouble in this morning's dramatic stages. Urmo Aava (Estonian World Rally Team Citroen) damaged his front suspension in SS18, and although he completed the stage six minutes off the pace, he had to retire on the following road section, losing a potential fourth place.

Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson - who was then set to move up to fourth - lost three minutes with a puncture in Jordan River.

"I thought it was maybe something in the suspension because it didn't go for a few kilometres, but then we had to stop and change it," Wilson said.

Those incidents have elevated Henning Solberg to fourth for Stobart, three minutes behind Atkinson and two minutes clear of Wilson.

Federico Villagra (Munchi's Ford) and Khalid Al-Qassimi (Ford) are now battling for sixth, but the gap between them has stretched to just under one minute as both drivers struggled with the conditions in Jordan River.

The attrition amongst the WRC field has allowed Junior series leader Sebastien Ogier to move into 10th overall, behind Gigi Galli (Stobart Ford), while Sebastien Loeb still has a chance of getting back into the top ten after rejoining following his day two crash. The championship leader won two of this morning's three stages and is now 12th.

Leading positions after SS19:

Pos  Driver      Car      Time
 1.  Hirvonen    Ford     3h16:12.0
 2.  Sordo       Citroen  +     7.7
 3.  Atkinson    Subaru   +  3:18.8
 4.  H Solberg   Ford     +  6:22.5
 5.  Wilson      Ford     +  8:41.7
 6.  Villagra    Ford     +  8:50.3
 7.  Al-Qassimi  Ford     +  9:42.4
 8.  Latvala     Ford     + 11:54.8
 9.  Galli       Ford     + 11:56.3
10.  Ogier       Citroen  + 21:54.1