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Hirvonen Hopes for Dry Conditions in the Corsica Rally

October 7, 2007

The goal of Ford's Mikko Hirvonen to place in the top two in the Rally Catalunya slipped through his fingers when he encountered problems already on the rally’s first leg. Exactly the same kind of problems on the very same leg cost teammate Marcus Grönholm his opportunities to fight for the win. Hirvonen placed fourth and Grönholm placed third.

"The chassis settings were wrong for the conditions and even our tyre selection failed," says Hirvonen, recounting the problems of the opening leg. "In dry conditions the car worked fine, which means that we have great expectations for the weekend's Corsica Rally, if the weather remains dry," says Hirvonen.

After the Rally Catalunya, Grönholms leads the WRC series by six points, just ahead of the rally’s winner, Sebastien Loeb. Hirvonen is third, 16 points behind Loeb.

On Saturday's leg of Rally Catalunya, Hirvonen did his best after the problems on Friday. Sunday's leg of the rally was spent securing fourth place as well as championship points, but Hirvonen made the most of the special stages.

"Sunday's stages were a good opportunity to experiment a little for Corsica and I think we got good information from them. We already tested the car in Corsica in the beginning of September, so the basic settings for the car are in balance," says Hirvonen.

Last year, Hirvonen placed fourth in the Corsica Rally. It was the best finish of his career in the rally, which is known for the narrow and extremely winding tarmac roads of its special stages. This year, the Corsica Rally will be especially laborious for the teams: approximately 60 percent of the roads in the 16 special stages are different from last year.

"The race is completely different from the Rally Catalunya. The stages are just one curve after another," says Hirvonen, outlining what lies ahead. "It feels like there are absolutely no straight stretches. The surface of the road on the stages is at times pretty uneven and bumpy. Still, for some reason, it's my favourite of all the tarmac races. Even if performing well is harder than in Rally Catalunya, I still enjoy it."