Citroen number two
Daniel Sordo has promised to push hard on Sunday in a bid to stay top on the Jordan Rally and claim his maiden win in the World Rally Championship.
Sordo, who led throughout the opening leg, lost the lead twice on day two.
Indeed initially
Sebastien Loeb looked set to take the spoils and the Frenchman was leading the pack by more than 30 seconds when he was involved in a head-on collision with
Conrad Rautenbach [see separate story]. That put Dani back top, but he slipped down again in SS13, when he suffered a puncture.
In the final test though, the two
BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team cars of
Jari-Matti Latvala and
Mikko Hirvonen opted to ease off in order to ensure that they won't run first on the road on Sunday and that 'gifted' Sordo P1.
He will now go into the final leg 8.5 seconds up on Latvala and while he will have to sweep the road on the first loop and will be at a disadvantage, he hasn't given up on taking gold.
"I always knew that being first on the road would be a handicap. But I think we succeeded in limiting the damage this morning," he noted.
"This afternoon got off to a poor start when we picked up a slow puncture which dropped us time.
"I kept up a good pace though and we recovered first place after the final stage when the others [Latvala and Hirvonen], strangely enough, hit problems. We will have to push hard tomorrow because we want to stay in front, and anything is still possible."
Citroen team boss Olivier Quesnel meanwhile also took a dig at the Ford men, who initially claimed they had had problems in SS16.
Both later admitted though, that they slowed on purpose in order to ensure they have a better position in the order on day three.
"Dani and Marc [Marti - his co-driver] went remarkably well today," added Quesnel. "They managed to shrug off the pressure from their rivals despite being first on the road this morning.
