Wilson certain Ford can still win
Ford team principal Malcolm Wilson is convinced one of his drivers - Jari-Matti Latvala or Mikko Hirvonen - can still win the Acropolis Rally, despite both losing a minute with suspension problems on the final spectator stage of day one
Latvala, who led the event through the morning, and Hirvonen lie in sixth and seventh overnight, but still have to start day two second and fourth on the road due to the regulation which states the following day's starting positions are decided ahead of an end-of-day superspecial.
"We've made it harder for ourselves, but I still believe we can win," Wilson said.
"I can tell you, there's plenty more to come from this event yet. Today was just a warm-up for the likes of Aghii Theodori and the stages on Sunday. I know how strong our cars are and I've seen the pounding they've taken today. Trust me, there's more to happen here."
Wilson's chief concern for his drivers is the long loops of stages tomorrow, where the drivers will tackle close to 40 miles on the same set of Pirelli tyres.
He added: "Tyre management is going to be a big issue tomorrow. It always is on this event. Marcus [Gronholm] won this rally last year through just this. Marcus was the master at it and while the guys (Latvala and Hirvonen) have improved a lot, they're not quite up there with Marcus yet. Looking after the tyres is going to be vital."
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