"I've had a good feeling all day, especially this afternoon, and I'm having so much fun,” said Mikko. “The speed was there this morning but on the second loop things went even better. There's not much more room before I start taking big risks but I will try to keep the pressure on Loeb tomorrow."
Sordo for his part complained about his tyre choice this morning and in the afternoon - but with two second quickest times, one fourth and two thirds his pace was still very impressive.
"I gradually started to find my marks on asphalt again. I made a few small adjustments to my set-up between stages to try to adapt it as closely as possible to the conditions. It would have been nice to have felt a little more comfortable with the soft compound tyres, but I know where I lost time," added the Spaniard.
Further down the order
Francois Duval is fourth on his first outing in the WRC since the Rallye Monte Carlo way back in January. The Belgian was fourth quickest in SS1, seventh in SS2 and third in SS3, his only real complaint on the first loop a slight delay in the electronic gear shift.
He was then second quickest in SS4 and fourth in SS5 and finally ended the day 13.1 seconds off the battle for third and 17 seconds up on
Jari-Matti Latvala in P5.
"I'm still getting used to the car and these new soft Pirellis but we made some changes to the setup of the car for this afternoon's stages and this seemed to work better,” he stated. “Hopefully we can continue this into tomorrow.”
Latvala jumped up from seventh to fifth in SS5, when he was around 10 seconds faster than both the
Subaru's of
Chris Atkinson and
Petter Solberg. Jari opted for a cautious start eager to gain experience on asphalt and get good points after his early error in Finland.
"I had a lot more confidence this afternoon with the harder springs. A top five position was my target tonight. I want to maintain that tomorrow because I know it will be difficult to catch the guys ahead,” noted Jari.
Petter is next up, 5.2 seconds further back, and while he was disappointed to see SS6 canned, he agreed it was a sensible decision.
