Ford’s Finns gift Loeb Turkish race lead

FORD’S Finnish duo Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala gifted the lead to Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb at the end of the first leg of the Rally of Turkey in a tactical ploy to ensure the Frenchman starts first on day two.

The Citroen driver was set to finish fourth after struggling with having to lead the way on the dusty roads in

Antalya.

He had trailed Hirvonen, who sits one point behind Loeb in the world championship standings, by 15.1 seconds at the end of the penultimate stage.

However, Hirvonen, along with his team-mate Latvala, and the Italian Stobart Ford driver Gigi Galli all dropped off the pace to allow Loeb through to finish first, one second ahead of Stobart Ford driver Henning Solberg.

The ploy means Loeb will again have to lead the way and ‘dust’ the roads for the other drivers on day two.

Just 2.2 seconds now separate the Citroen driver, Solberg, Latvala and Galli in the top fourh places, while Hirvonen fell back to fifth, seven seconds adrift of the leader.

Subaru’s Norwegian Petter Solberg finished in sixth, 49.1 seconds behind the leader.

Despite trailing going into the second day, Hirvonen seemed happy that his tactic would pay dividends.

“For me, I feel it’s easier if I’m behind Sebastien and then I can attack him,” he told autosport.com.

For his part Loeb failed to complain about the way the day’s events had panned out.

“What can I do? In my position I can only drive and wait and see,” he said.

“They are behind, so if they want to do some strategy, they have my time, and I don’t have their time. It doesn’t matter.”

Further down the pecking order Matthew Wilson remains seventh in the third Stobart Ford, with Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo behind him in eighth after he recovered from suspension damage.

In ninth is Munchi’s Ford driver Federico Villagra, who finds himself under pressure from Toni Gardemeister.

The Suzuki driver managed to set competitive times despite dislocating his shoulder earlier in the day.