Mikko Hirvonen of Finland extended his and Ford’s lead over the weekend after several of his rivals faltered in the rough terrain of the Acropolis Rally.

It is a perfect day. We made no mistakes, faced no problems and we have a big difference, but you never know
– Mikko Hirvonen

Saturday’s (Day Two) most notable casualty was Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, the overall World Rally Championship standings leader, who crashed in the first stage of the day.

At the time, Loeb was in third place overnight, 21.1 seconds behind Hirvonen.

Dani Sordo of Citroen, Henning Solberg of Ford and Mads Ostberg of Subaru, were the other competitors to have encountered setbacks, all with broken suspensions, but who continue after dropping several places in the standings.

Loeb told reporters afterwards: “It was my fault. It happened after I went around a high-speed right-hand corner, I was bit too sideways then hit a big stone with the left-hand front wheel and that sent the car into the air. The car rolled over five or six times.”

He continued: “The car is destroyed. There’s no chance to return tomorrow – the race is over. We are OK, that’s the main thing.”

Hirvonen did not win any of the day’s six stages, but was steady and avoided trouble.

The Fin told reporters: “It is a perfect day. We made no mistakes, faced no problems and we have a big difference, but you never know.”

Hirvonen will close to within seven points of Loeb, who won the first five races on the world circuit this year before finishing fourth in the Rally of Sardinia, if he holds on to win the rally.

Sebastien Ogier of France in a Citroen trails Hirvonen in second place, 1 minute 40.1 seconds off the pace.

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala recovered from a disastrous first day to win two stages and climb from eleventh to third place, 2 minutes 44.2 seconds behind Hirvonen.
Evgeny Novikov of Russia, driving a Citroen, is in fourth place after winning three stages.

Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala won the opening stage of the event and maintained his advantage with a series of impressive times throughout the rest of the day.

But Latvala dropped to eleventh place after coming unstuck in the Thiva stage when he ran wide at a bend and lost three minutes.

“We went off after a long left-hand corner, as we were braking for a hairpin right,” the 24-year-old said.

“I guess I just had too much speed. The car got stuck and even though there were people there, they couldn’t push immediately and I had to get out and explain to them what to do. Of course it’s disappointing but you really have to drive if you want to win – you can’t just cruise around.”