Autosportfoto

ADAC Rallye Deutschland - Ford: After stage 3, Moselland 1

After winning the opening speed test in the dry, heavy rain hampered Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team's drivers and Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen headed the team's challenge in third at the day's midpoint.

Thousands of fans packed Trier, Germany's oldest city, to witness last night's start ceremony beneath the imposing Porta Nigra Roman gate. The action began this morning when 80 starters journeyed north-east to tackle three asphalt special stages covering 66.57km on the banks of the Mosel river.

Dry, but much cooler, conditions encouraged Hirvonen and team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila to opt for hard compound Michelin Pilot Sport tyres on their Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Cars. They were ideal for the opening 24.18km Ruwertal / Fell test, the first traditional all-asphalt stage faced by the new generation of WRC cars, and Latvala was fastest by 1.5sec with Hirvonen fourth..

However, heavy rain in the 22.47km Grafschaft Veldenz test made conditions extremely tricky on the narrow vineyard tracks. The hard tyres were unsuited to the wet roads and although Hirvonen and Latvala were third and fourth respectively, the Finns dropped more than 30sec to their rivals ahead.
 
Dry conditions returned for the 19.92km Moselland and Hirvonen was second to reach the mid-leg service in Trier 35.2sec from the lead. "I was happy with the car and had good speed in the dry. Our tyres were perfect for the first and last stages, but the soft compound would have been better in the middle test. The last 5km were soaked and I was worried about aquaplaning off the road. The weather is so localised here that it can rain on one side of a hill and be dry on the other," he said.
 
"Near the start of SS3, I hit a kerb with the rear right and thought I had punctured a tyre. I eased my pace for a few kilometres, but realised the tyre was OK and pushed on," he added.

 
Latvala punctured a right rear tyre on a short gravel section 6km after the start of the final test. He drove to the finish and lost 80sec, slipping from fourth to seventh. "I was so happy to win the first proper asphalt stage with the Fiesta RS WRC," he said. "But then it rained so quickly. I was worried I would slip off the road because there was no heat in the hard tyres. We expected heavy clouds but believed that if it rained, it would only be light. Soft tyres would have been a huge gamble, but that gamble would have worked.
 
"In the final stage there was a 100 metre gravel section. I braked hard on the loose and I think a sharp rock pierced the tyre. It was a slow puncture and I made the correct decision not to stop and change it, but by the end of the stage there was no rubber remaining," added 26-year-old Latvala