Neste Rally Finland / Rally review
The first proceedings
As a confidence booster Mikko Hirvonen wins
the qualifying stage and not surprisingly choses
last spot of the WRC drivers to start in the oncoming event. But Ogier although, sweeping the
road for Hirvonen sets things straight on stage
one already. On the completely changed Himos
stage Ogier is fastest before Latvala, Hirvonen
and Østberg. There are only 40 kilometres of
stages on day one but there is a lot of things
happening. It’s not going to be a walk over for
Ogier. The first four stages with Ogier, Neuville
and Hirvonen have three different winners. And
at the end of this first day it’s Neuville who is
sensationally topping the charts.
Victims of day one
In the very beginning all hopes for a good result
vanished for Juho Hanninen who went off the
road in a downhill section and was lucky not get
stuck. P-G Andersson lost some time by spinning his Fiesta RS twice and Jarkko Nikara was
hampered by a loss of power in his Prodrive
Mini. But the biggest victim was Jari Matti Latvala. A big rock caused the suspension to break
and he had to retire for the day.
The reason for these pauses stays as clear as
the mist on the windscreens. But meanwhile the
battle for top spot rages on. Østberg takes first
Rain
place after the day’s first stage and swaps sevDay was quite wet causing quite a few problems eral times with Ogier, but in the end it is Ogier
for the drivers, especially with failing wipers and who is fastest followed by Neuville and Østberg.
insufficient ventilation inside the car causing
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