Hirvonen had managed to stay in touch early on, despite having to run first on the road, however a slow puncture this afternoon in SS5 really cost him. He now lies 7.7 seconds off Petter and nearly 50 seconds off the final place on the podium.
Henning Solberg finished the day in sixth, even though he hit a rock in SS2 and bent the rear left suspension - something that cost him 2 minutes, while
Matthew Wilson is seventh, 9.3 seconds behind.
Federico Villagra completes the provisional points’ scorers followed by Peugeot privateer Ricardo Trivino and Sebastien Ogier.
Ogier, who is competing in his first event in the WRC, also heads the Junior World Rally Championship category in his
Citroen C2 Super 1600, nearly a minute up on Jaan Molder’s Swift.
Michal Kosciuszko and Aaron Burkart are third and fourth in the JWRC, while Patrik Sandell, who had been second post-SS3, dropped to fifth this afternoon due to brake problems.
In terms of retirements a number of drivers had problems on the opening day and went out, including four ‘works’ drivers.
Daniel Sordo was the first to retire from the leg, when he damaged his front suspension in Alfaro 1. He will re-start on Saturday under the SupeRally.
Gigi Galli also damaged his car in Alfaro, but on the repeat run through it as SS4, when he was trying to make up time following an off in the previous test. Gigi had been running in third early on. He will not be able to rejoin the fold as the incident damaged the roll cage on his Focus.
Suzuki’s
Toni Gardemeister and his team-mate Per-Gunnar Andersson were the other two that were forced out - both with engine problems. P-G went out in service A, while Gardemeister was sidelined in SS4. Neither will be able to re-start.
The action now resumes on Saturday with 158 competitive kilometres on the bill. SS9, the 29.90 kilometre-run through Ibarrilla starts at 08.24 hours local time.
![Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) / Miikka Anttila (FIN) BP Ford Focus RS WRC 07. Rally Mexico. February 29-March 2 2008. [PIC CREDIT: FORD / worldrallypics.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/411400.jpg)
