Source: BP Ford Press Release Team BP-Ford continued to dominate the top of the leaderboard during today's second leg of Rally GB. Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Focus RS WRC) returned to Swansea with a 35.5sec advantage over teammates Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen after a second day's competition in the rain-soaked forests of south Wales. Hirvonen lacked experience on today's speed tests over military land north of the rally base in Cardiff, having not driven them since 2004. However, the 27-year-old Finn maintained his comfortable advantage over Grönholm, whose thoughts are focused more on trying to secure his third drivers' world title on this 16th and final round of the championship than winning the rally outright. Grönholm's title hopes depend on arch-rival Sébastien Loeb hitting trouble so the Ford driver took no risks. In fact, Loeb (Citroen C4 WRC) took no risks too in third, with his mind concentrated on the fight for the drivers' world title. Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza) spun on the first stage and dropped 30sec but retained fourth ahead of Dani Sordo (Citroen C4). The closest battle was between Chris Atkinson (Subaru) and Matthew Wilson (Ford) for sixth. Leaderboard after Leg 2 1. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 16min 27.3sec 2. M Grönholm/T Rautiainen FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 17min 02.8sec 3. S Loeb/D Elena F Citroen C4 2hr 17min 42.3sec 4. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza 2hr 18min 53.6sec 5. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroen C4 2hr 19min 24.2sec 6. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 2hr 22min 17.2sec 7. M Wilson/M Orr GB Ford Focus RS 2hr 22min 27.2sec 8. M Stohl/I Minor A Citroen Xsara 2hr 23min 22.7sec 9. X Pons/X Amigo E Subaru Impreza 2hr 24min 13.7sec 10 M Ostberg/O Unnerud N Subaru Impreza 2hr 25min 55.9sec
Hirvonen still first