Day 3 – Hirvonen victorious, ahead of Sordo and Atkinson

Mikko Hirvonen claimed his second victory of the season in Jordan. The Finnish driver took advantage of a problem encountered by Latvala to take the lead after surpassing Dani Sordo in the previous two stages, who was slowed down by the disadvantage of opening the road. The Spaniard eventually finished second with his C4, ahead of Chris Atkinson.

The Finn benefited from a good strategy implemented by his team yesterday. The two Ford drivers then leading one special before the end deliberately lost 20 seconds to let Sordo take the lead the next day and give him the heavy task of opening the road.

« It’s good to be able to return to the championship. The last time in Argentina, I lost a lot of points, and now, I’m managing to make up for it. » comments Hirvonen.

Sordo, penalized by this position, could not keep up with the pace and was quickly overtaken by the Fords. Latvala took the lead in special stage 17, followed by Hirvonen.

In special stage 18, Latvala suffered a suspension problem, losing a lot of time. He thus ceded second position to Sordo, finishing finally in 7th position.

Atkinson takes advantage of the retirements and issues to secure his third podium. The Australian with the Subaru Impreza is 3rd. He is ahead of a quintet of Ford Focus cars. Henning Solberg is 5th ahead of Wilson, Villagra, Latvala, Galli and Al-Qassimi.

« I’m happy with this result: we’re scoring big points for the team today, however, if we want to win someday, we still have progress to make! » admits Atkinson.

Restarting in SupeRally on the third day and for the 134 kilometers of special stage, Sébastien Loeb enters the top 10. Yet, he was only 18th this morning.

Sébastien Ogier, young French rally hopeful, is just behind Loeb, in 11th place. He is ahead of Clark, who replaced Perez-Companc at Munchi’s Ford.

In the championship, Hirvonen takes advantage of Loeb’s retirement to regain the lead in the championship.

Results of Day 3 – 2008 Jordan Rally