The one consolation the Finn can take from not leading the championship though is that Seb will have to run first on the road on day one. As such Loeb will have to sweep away the loose gravel and that could help Gronholm and give him a slight edge.
"He is now championship leader and so he must open the road. That gives me a little advantage because he must sweep the road clean,” Marcus agreed, “but the difference between first and second in the start order won't be huge.”
Mikko Hirvonen meanwhile will drive the sister car and he believes that the Rally Argentina could be a difficult event for him, as he doesn’t have too much experience of the stages. Although the Finn finished fourth in Argentina in 2004, on his other two outings, he failed to get to the end and that may put him at a slight disadvantage compared to his rivals.
Speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio a few weeks ago, when asked which events would be especially good for him during the rest of the year, he responded that it was easier so say which ones won’t be good, and Argentina was one of those that he thinks might not suit him - along with Rallye Deutschland.
“I don’t have so much experience there [in Argentina],” he explained. “I have always retired over there, except in 2004. As such I have less experience of those stages than everyone else has. [Despite that though] in all the rallies I just try to get as close as I can to try and fight for the win. I want to get as close as possible to Marcus [Gronholm – my team-mate] and Sebastien [Loeb]. But at the same time I need to think about my own points and stay on the speed. I don’t want to go off the road. I want to try and get as many points as I can.”
OMV Kronos Citroen WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #5 [and Daniel Carlsson, car #6]].
OMV Kronos’ Manfred Stohl will take in the Rally Argentina for the tenth time in his career this weekend and the Austrian is looking forward to the event, one he regards as one of his favourites.
