Latvala and Andersson OUT from the 2nd stage

Jari-Matti Latvala could not withstand the pressure applied to him during this Rally Argentina. The Finn, from whom much is expected after his strong performances at the start of the season with BP Ford, indeed made a mistake as early as the second stage of the Rally Argentina.

The Ford Focus driver was second behind his teammate Mikko Hirvonen before going off the road in very wet and foggy conditions. He lost more than nine minutes in the process and is now far outside the top 10.

Two kilometers after starting the second stage of the day, I stayed too much on the outside of a left turn. I couldn’t take the inside line on the next turn and went off track… commented the Finn after his accident.

The young winner of the Swedish rally is doing quite well: « Fortunately, there were spectators who helped us get the car back on track. I was on the wheels, which helped, and in the end, we don’t have too much damage; a missing windshield and some minor breaks… »

Hirvonen dominated the first morning of the Argentine rally in very challenging conditions for the drivers, with lots of rain, mud, and fog. He holds nearly a 50-second lead over Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) after SS5. Chris Atkinson’s Subaru is in third position.

The Suzuki driver P-G Andersson is nevertheless the first driver to appear on the list of retirements after parking his SX4 WRC only four kilometers after the start of SS1. The team announced that Andersson experienced a problem on the road section without being more explicit. The Suzuki was brought back to the service park for a detailed analysis.