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ADAC Rallye Deutschland - Ford: After stage 10, Arena Panzerplatte 1

Seventy-five of the original 80 starters left Trier under cloudless skies this morning for the second and longest leg of this ninth round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Sixteen of those are competing under SupeRally rules having retired yesterday.

Today's schedule offers two identical loops of four speed tests covering 150.14km south-east of Germany's oldest city. The special stages are a mix of flowing public roads in the Saarland countryside and bumpy, abrasive tracks over the daunting Baumholder military land, more frequently used for tank training exercises.

 
The action began with the 11.37km Hermeskeil / Gusenburg. Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team's Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila put yesterday's problems behind them to set fastest time in their Fiesta RS World Rally Car, despite 26-year-old Latvala feeling unwell after spending much of the night awake with an upset stomach.
 
Team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen, third overnight, were seventh in their Fiesta RS WRC. The 31-year-old Finnish driver stiffened the dampers before the following 14.29km Bosenberg and the improvement was quickly noticeable. He was fourth, and then third in the 15.23km Birkenfelder Land.

 
However, Hirvonen punctured a rear right tyre in the 34.18km Arena Panzerplatte test. He lost a minute and a place on the leaderboard, returning to Trier for the mid-leg service 32.9sec behind new third-place driver, Dani Sordo.
 
"I have no idea how the puncture happened," said Hirvonen. "There were some holes in the asphalt and sharp edges on the roadside so maybe I caught one of those. I felt the vibrations about 13km from the finish and with about 9km to go the tyre deflated completely. I made the dampers stiffer during the loop and will make the set-up stiffer still in service. The car didn't feel as good, but the times were better so I have to get used to the feeling."
 
Latvala, who started this morning in 15th, was second in Bosenberg and ended the loop with third in both Birkenfelder Land and Arena Panzerplatte. He returned to service having climbed to 10th.
 
"I felt better as the morning went on," he said. "I was so bad in the night that our medics came to see me in my room four times, but my stomach started to settle when I climbed into the car at the restart. I felt really weak, but fastest time cheered me up! It's a shame about yesterday because I would have been fighting for a podium now. I made the set-up harder this morning and I'm happy with that."