WRC:Hirvonen fastest again as Loeb struggles

[Plex]

The third special stage of Rally Norway was a repeat of the first stage this morning at Loten, a bumpy and fast snow covered forest stage, but this time around snow and light rain was starting to fall.

As was the case first thing this morning, it was Mikko Hirvonen who led the way in his BP Ford Focus WRC 06 setting the pace with a stage time of 16:09.9, five seconds up on his SS1 time. �It was very difficult as the car is sliding around,� explained the rally leader. �The car is perfect - there is a long way to go but it looks good.�

Marcus Gronholm was just 0.7s slower in the sister Focus and the gap between the battling Ford drivers are now separated by 9.2s. �Not bad, good,� said Gronholm when informed that Sebastien Loeb did not have such a good stage. �I didn't have any splits but I was pushing and now it is okay.�

Gigi Galli set the third fastest time in his Citroen Xsara WRC, ten seconds off the ultimate pace. The result moves Galli up from eighth overall to fifth. �We went a little bit on the snow, but the conditions were quite slippery.�

Henning Solberg had been in a very tight battle for position with Petter Solberg but his fourth fastest time was good enough to move him clear of Galli, Toni Gardemeister and Petter.
In fact, the Stobart driver is now just seven seconds away from third position overall.

Sebastien Loeb made a mistake and went off in the first running of this stage this morning, but second time around there was no mistakes from the Citroen C4 driver but he was far from happy with his run having opted for the shorter studs. �Very slippery a lot of snow on the road and conditions are much worse than first time around,� said Loeb who now trails Hirvonen by 28 seconds and Gronholm by 19 seconds. �I had to be very careful in places.�

Jari-Matti Latvala was in trouble as he missed his starting position as the Stobart team changed the steering rack on the Stobart Focus. With a one minute penalty, Latvala finished the stage with the sixth fastest time but after such a promising start, now drops out of the top ten.

Toni Gardemeister finished the stage with the seventh fastest time but he had also been off course in his Lancer, missing the final corner, and then finishing the stage with the radiator of the car full of snow.

Petter Solberg lost some 11 seconds to Henning Solberg in what was the close battle for position. Petter remains seventh overall and seemingly not too concerned at this stage of the rally. �It's no problem, but that's how it is.�

After a slow start to the rally, Daniel Carlsson was back on the pace in OMV Kronos Citroen with the ninth fastest time. �A bit more confident but I am still very fresh at everything like this,� Carlsson explained. �I have to stay patient.� Still he was ahead of the rather dejected Chris Atkinson in the second Subaru. The Australian is just eighth overall, suffering from understeer earlier on and described his latest run as �just driving around again.'

Manfred Stohl was 11th fastest on the stage in his OMV entry seemingly suffering with power steering problems. Jan Kopecky started the stage in 16th position but lost over three minutes after going off in his Skoda Fabia.

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