Sordo criticises Ford team's tactics

Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen had passed Sordo and established a Ford one-two as the Citroen driver struggled with the dusty surfaces while running first on the road today.

But in the final split of the leg's last stage both Finns reduced their pace by almost 20 seconds to drop back behind Sordo and leave the Spaniard to sweep the surface clear for them again on Sunday.

Ford had sent the drivers a target time to aim for as soon as they saw the time that Sordo produced in the stage.

Sordo will therefore lead the rally by 8.5 seconds over Latvala when tomorrow's stages began, but he is far from happy about his position.

"This is not the sport," he told autosport.com. "The sport is to go flat-out in the stages and this isn't a nice way to decide a rally."

However Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson dismissed Sordo's complaints and insisted that Citroen would have done the same thing in Ford's position.

"Why don't you ask him what they would have done in this situation?" replied Wilson when Sordo's comments were put to him by autosport.com.

"They would've done exactly the same thing. It's part of the sport now."

The regulations governing running orders have changed for 2008, with the previous system of inverting the top 15 for Saturday and Sunday's stages being replaced by a return to the previous method of sending cars out in their current rally order.

"The potential for these tactics has been reintroduced by the decision to keep the running order as it is," said Wilson. "I think it makes it even more interesting."

The Ford boss is extremely bullish about Latvala and Hirvonen's chances of reclaiming the lead during tomorrow's leg, which is the longest of the rally.

"If you look at what Jari-Matti and Mikko have done today, with no disrespect to Dani, I would expect them to pass him, particularly as they have more kilometres to do so," Wilson said.

Hirvonen revealed that Ford had planned to use the tactic before the start of the rally, as they always believed Sunday's 41-kilometre Jordan River stage will be extremely difficult for the first car on the road.

"This was our plan even before the rally," he said. "After the recce we saw how much gravel there was on that stage, so we knew the rally would be decided there.

"It was a bit easier (to decide) when (Sebastien) Loeb had his accident this morning."

Sordo agreed that running first in the Jordan River stage - which is used twice tomorrow - was likely to cost him victory.

When asked how much time he thought he would lose in the stage, Sordo replied: "As much as 30 seconds, because there is so much more loose gravel there than on any of the other stages."