Jari-Matti Latvala charges away after opening day of Rally GB
Jari-Matti Latvala charged away from the field as Ford dominated the second half of Rally GB's opening day on Friday
Latvala and team-mate Petter Solberg had a comfortable advantage on the leg's last two stages, the Fiesta WRCs proving better suited to the increasingly slippery conditions than their Citroen rivals.
That meant Latvala was able to establish a 12-second lead, as Solberg grabbed second place from Sebastien Loeb.
The world champion is now 9.2s off Solberg and 21s adrift of leader Latvala. Although Loeb insisted he was still pushing, he acknowledged that with a very comfortable championship lead, being beaten in Wales would not be a disaster.
Loeb managed to keep Mads Ostberg's Adapta Ford at arm's length. The fourth-placed Norwegian is now 11s behind Loeb.
Mikko Hirvonen continues to struggle for speed in the second factory Citroen and is almost a minute down on Latvala in fifth.
There has been nothing to choose between M-Sport Ford's two full-time drivers all day, with Ott Tanak staying just ahead of team-mate Evgeny Novikov in sixth despite power steering worries.
Thierry Neuville is running a steady eighth for Citroen Junior, while Matthew Wilson is ninth in his first World Rally Championship appearance since January's Monte Carlo Rally.
Leading positions after SS6: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford 1h25m05.7s 2. Petter Solberg Ford + 12.1s 3. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 21.3s 4. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 32.6s 5. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 53.8s 6. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 1m19.2s 7. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 1m32.8s 8. Thierry Neuville Citroen Junior + 2m27.9s 9. Matthew Wilson M-Sport Ford + 3m17.0s 10. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 3m36.8s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Hamilton accepts blame for incident with Albon in F1 Brazilian GP
Ferrari drivers called to F1 stewards over Brazilian GP collision
Will Alonso's Indy failure end the age of versatility?
Latvala to make WRC comeback at Rally Finland
Latvala: Rovanpera "on another planet" to score dominant WRC Estonia win
Latvala is a victim of blame culture
Latvala: Neuville, Evans tied for WRC Croatia lead "something special"
WEC Imola: Ferrari remains on top in FP2 as Fuoco beats Porsche
WRC Croatia: Neuville, Evans tied for the lead after eight stages
WIN! A VIP Race Weekend Experience in Monaco
How Rovanpera showed his class above his WRC rivals in Kenya
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
The new WRC highs Neuville reached to defeat Monte master Ogier
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments