Wrc.com stage summary
Stage data: SS5, Monte Grighini Nord 2 (21.32 kilometres)
Stage description:
By Ford Abu Dhabi Team co-driver Miikka Anttila: “It is fast with blind crests and you have to have faith in your pacenotes. If there are slow places over a crest you have to believe this because if you don’t brake enough you can find yourself in the ditch. You are on a flat section first for about four kilometres. You then have a steep uphill section into a forest, past some wind turbines into a very wide and fast downhill section.”
How the action unfolded:
Mikko Hirvonen has hit back in his efforts to win Rally d’Italia Sardegna by beating Sebastien Loeb through the first stage of the afternoon.
Hirvonen dropped 2.7s behind Citroen DS3 WRC driver Loeb after stage four but has reduced that gap to 1.2s in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
“The car was moving quite a lot in the end of the stage but it looks okay,” said Hirvonen, who also trails Loeb in the battle for the World Rally Championship title.
Russian Evgeny Novikov began the stage in third overall but his slipped to fourth behind Sebastien Ogier. Mads Ostberg has dropped from fourth to sixth after reporting a soft brake pedal in his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta.
Petter Solberg completes the top five in his self-run Citroen. His older brother Henning Solberg suffered a broken driveshaft in his Fiesta and has fallen to eighth overall.
Dani Sordo is up to seventh in the surviving factory MINI John Cooper Works WRC.
Key moment:
Second stage win for Hirvonen ignites fight for victory.
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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