WRC: Mikko Hirvonen leads after day two in Finland

From the World Rally Championship

BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team driver Mikko Hirvonen strengthened his grip on the lead of Rally Finland on today's second day of the competition, opening up a 32sec lead on the roller coaster gravel roads near his home town of Jyvaskyla.

The Finn, who leads the drivers' championship by one point, is on course to take his first Rally Finland victory on Sunday's short final day, which comprises just four stages and 47.44 competitive kilometres.

Wet stages this morning gave Hirvonen the ideal springboard to extend his overnight advantage over his title rival Sebastien Loeb in second, and he made the most of the available grip by edging further ahead on each of the opening four stages.

However his win on the repeated Himos stage (SS15) was the turning point of the day, as the 29-year pulled 13.5sec further ahead of Loeb, who hit a pot hole and damaged a tyre. With his lead doubled, Hirvonen was able to take a more measured approach for the rest of the day.

Early in the day Loeb acknowledged he was unable to match Hirvonen's pace - even when he employed a maximum risk strategy. After his misfortune on Himos, the Citroen C4 WRC driver said he had given up any hope of catching him on the stages, and was aiming for second place instead.

Some 40 seconds behind the lead pair, Jari-Matti Latvala and Dani Sordo remained locked in a day-long battle for third. A bout of food poisoning hampered Latvala's early morning attempts to catch Sordo, who had the overnight advantage, but as Jari-Matti's health improved, so did his speed.

The decisive stage came on SS16, when a dominant stage win moved Latvala ahead of the Spaniard. He kept the position for the rest of the day and will start Sunday's competition with a cushion of 10.5 seconds.

Local hero Matti Rantanen holds fifth, and the honour of being the best of the non-factory team drivers. The Finn had a clean run though the stages in his Munchi's Ford team Focus RS WRC but, incredibly, said he wasn't satisfied with what had achieved on only his second ever outing in a World Rally Car.

Citroen Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier is sixth, 17.5sec adrift of Rantanen, and happy with a day which was all about learning the Finnish stages on his rookie pass in a World Rally Car.

Saturday's final stage was the longest of the event and brought about the retirement of two high-profile competitors.

First to go was Adapta Subaru team driver Mads Ostberg, who drove his Impreza WRC off the road and into a ditch 3km from the start. Ostberg was seventh going into the stage and had earlier reported problems with his car's front dampers.

Minutes later Ferrari F1 star Kimi Raikkonen crashed at exactly the same place - the Finn rolling his Abarth off the road, narrowly missing Ostberg's car. Raikkonen and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom were uninjured.