Duo in fight for supremacy in Rally of Finland

World Rally Championship rivals Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb enjoyed a thrilling battle for the lead on the first full day of the Rally of Finland.

Citroen driver Loeb, the defending world champion, had held the overnight lead after the opening run through the Killeri super special on Thursday evening, but was forced to give best to Hirvonen as the Ford driver secured four stage wins today, Loeb picking up five, to open up a narrow lead of 3.3 seconds.

Hirvonen, celebrating his 29th birthday, assumed the lead on the morning’s first stage and held onto it throughout the day, but he and Loeb were never separated by more than 9.1 seconds in a nip-and-tuck battle which tees up what could be a classic battle over the course of the weekend.

The Ford driver, looking for victory in his home event, had been worried that running first on the road, having struggled when performing the same task at last year’s event, would hinder his chances on day one and was delighted to have shown good pace on the fast gravel stages.

“It’s been a good day for me – definitely a lot better than last year – and there haven’t been any problems, so it looks good at the moment,” he said

“It’s going to be a difficult fight with Sebastien – and for sure he’s not going to give up.”

Loeb, meanwhile, was nowhere near as happy despite his narrow deficit and admitted he had been struggling to find a good set-up on his C4 WRC.

He said: “It was a difficult start. Last year I found the right rhythm here straight away, this year it was a bit more difficult.

“Also we started with a different car setting and I couldn’t be confident with it. I made some changes to the diffs, the feeling was better and could take that confidence to push really hard. But Mikko is pushing very hard too.”

The second Citroen of Dani Sordo is running third, 20 seconds off Hirvonen’s lead, while Jari-Matti Latvala is a solid fourth for Ford as he looks to claim some handy points after his calamitous last-stage crash in Poland last time out.

British Rally Championship regular Matti Rantanen is an excellent fifth in his Focus with yet another Blue Oval challenger, in the form of Henning Solberg, lying sixth.

The final two points positions are held by Mads Ostberg and Jari Ketomaa, Britain’s Matthew Wilson lies 10th overnight.