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Sweden - day 2: Latvala homes in on debut win.

Saturday, 9th February 2008

Swedish Rally - Day 2 report: Jari-Matti Latvala still in P1 as the BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT heads for a one-two.

BP Ford Abu Dhabi's Jari-Matti Latvala stands on the verge of taking his maiden win in the FIA World Rally Championship following day two of the Uddeholm Swedish Rally.

Latvala began the second leg 48.2 seconds up on his team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen and the 22-year-old inched further ahead in SS9 and SS10 to take his cushion to just over a minute.

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Although he conceded 8.2 seconds to Mikko in SS11 and had a bit of a scare near the start of Vargasen, when he hit a stone with the front right wheel, he still returned to the mid-day halt at Hagfors comfortably in front and the two were split by 53.9 seconds.

The afternoon loop was somewhat shorter than planned after the second run through Horssjon - SS12 - was cancelled due to the mild weather.

The stages today have been at a lower altitude than those run on Friday and with temperatures several degrees above freezing, the round bore more resemblance at times to a gravel event, only with competitors forced to run on Pirelli's studded ice tyres due to the regulations.

As such organisers opted to cancel SS12 to prevent further damage to the stage surface and for safety reasons.

SS13 and SS14 however had no impact on Latvala's position at the top of the order and while he reported a 'big moment' at the end of Hagfors 2, most drivers struggled at the finish there as there was a section of asphalt.

In the end, Latvala completed the leg 49.8 seconds in front, virtually the same 'cushion' he started the day with.

Hirvonen meanwhile, who began the leg in a three-way scrap for P2, is now well on course to take the runners-up spot, 45 seconds up on Gigi Galli. Mikko had hoped to close up on Latvala on day 2, but in the end there was little to choose between them.

Galli for his part is now almost guaranteed the final spot on the podium, following the demise of his Stobart Ford team-mate, Henning Solberg.

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