Latvala advances to podium spot
After seven testing stages of Rally Ireland, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala has moved up to third with three stages remaining in this opening leg. Topping off a successful start for the Stobart team are Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson who are both currently inside the top-ten coming into Service B in Sligo. The wet and muddy conditions that hampered the leaderboard this morning remained, with a strong presence, for the most recent loop of stages. After several incidents this morning, stages this afternoon were delayed 19 minutes after stage 4 was yellow flagged due to a heavy incident.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team Driver Henning Solberg said:
“I have been taking it quite carefully this afternoon, our tyre choice wasn’t correct and we had to slow down because of this. My tarmac experience is limited and the muddy conditions make it even worse for me here. We hold a strong position inside the top-six and for sure we will try and build on this. I am happy because my goal for this event was to score my first point on tarmac and at the moment we are looking good to do this.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team Driver Jari-Matti Latvala said:
“These stages were quite OK, especially the long one where we had a really good time and managed to get up into third overall. We took it carefully on the last stage though; stages are so difficult sometimes it feels like you need gravel tyres with the inside of corners completely covered in mud. You just have to commit to the line through the mud and slide through the corner. The surface is changing a lot, in some places the grip is very good but then you come across a patch of shiny tar. I’m very happy with my position but I know it is a very long event.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team Driver Matthew Wilson said:
“Those stages went fine, we probably would have liked to have been quicker on the last stage as I knew it better than the others but conditions meant I couldn’t push as hard as I’d liked. The road was starting to dry out on wider sections but then it changed to mud and you really needed to be careful. You have to keep altering your pace as the surface changes which makes concentrating very difficult.”
Leaderboard after SS7
1. S Loeb/D Elena F Citroen C4 1h 07m 50.9sec
2. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroen C4 +6.9sec
3. J M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS +1m11.6sec
4. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS +1m11.8sec
5. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza +1m51.3sec
6. H Solberg/G Bergsten N Ford Focus RS +2m08.4sec
7. G Wilks/P Pugh GB Subaru Impreza +2m52.5sec
8. M Stohl/I Minor AUT Citroen Xsara +3m13.2sec
9. M Wilson/M Orr GB Ford Focus RS +4m38.5sec
10. T McNulty/E O’Donnell IRL Subaru Impreza +5m20.5sec