Jordan Rally – after stage 12, Baptism Site 1
BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila and team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen closed on the lead of the Jordan Rally this morning after a dramatic opening to the second day. After the opening loop of four speed tests, Latvala's Ford Focus RS World Rally Car returned to the Dead Sea service park just 0.7sec behind Dani Sordo, with the similar Focus RS of Hirvonen just 6.0sec from the lead in third.
Fifty-one of the original 54 starters left the shores of the Dead Sea, 17 of those under SupeRally rules having retired yesterday. All face two identical loops of four special stages over roads in the stunning Jordan Valley, south-west of Amman, making 109.84km of competition. Bright sunshine promised another punishingly hot day for both drivers and fans enjoying the Easter holiday here.
Latvala started the day in third and the 23-year-old Finn posted three second fastest times over the four tests to close in on overnight leader Sordo. Sordo was demoted to second by team-mate Sébastien Loeb but the Frenchman was sidelined following a head-on collision with Conrad Rautenbach's car on a two-way access road leading to and from stage 11. Nobody was injured but both cars retired.
"I'm close to Dani and I need to control that now and control how he's driving," said Latvala. "It would be perfect if I can keep the gap to just a couple of seconds because I don't want to be first car on the slippery gravel roads tomorrow, so maybe I don't need to push so much. I made quite a few mistakes this morning and couldn't find my confidence. I slid wide too often and also ended in a field after a crest on stage 11 because my pace note was wrong. Luckily I didn't damage the car."
Hirvonen took one second and three third fastest times as he, too, maintained a strong pace. "I've made no mistakes but when I try to push hard it's difficult to gain time and I couldn't have done more than I did," said the 27-year-old Finn. "I couldn't believe it when I saw Loeb's accident. It was on a very narrow section of road just after a crest. I'm still thinking about my road position for tomorrow. Third in the start order would be ideal so long as I'm close to Sordo and Jari-Matti."
Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr climbed to ninth in another Focus RS. "I started well and had good pace. But at the end of a long straight in stage 10 I hit the brakes, nothing happened and I banked the car. Thankfully there wasn't much damage and I completed the stage," said Al Qassimi.
Leaderboard after SS12
1. D Sordo/M MartiE Citroën C4 1h53m05.0s
2. J-M Latvala/M Attila FIN Ford Focus RS +0.7s
3. M Hirvonen/J LehtinenFIN Ford Focus RS +6.0s
4. C Atkinson/S Prevot AUS Subaru Impreza +1m52.7s
5. U Aava/K SikkEE Citroën C4 +2m38.7s
6. M Wilson/S Martin GB Ford Focus RS +4m07.7s
7. S Loeb/D ElenaF Citroën C4 +4m25.9s
8. H Solberg/C Menkerud N Ford Focus RS +4m40.0s
11. G Galli/G BernacchiniI Ford Focus RS +11m43.0s