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Hirvonen is looking for extra speed in the opening leg

Sardinia 20th May, 2008

WRC leader Mikko Hirvonen is facing the same challenge in the Acropolis Rally of Greece, which is to be driven at the turn of May-June, as he did in the Sardinian gravel roads where the Ford driver finished second.
- As the WRC leader, I'm once again clearing the loose gravel from the right track on the first day of the race. In Sardinia, we lost far too much time doing that, says Hirvonen.
Hirvonen lost almost a minute to Sebastian Loeb on the first day of the Rally d'Italia Sardegna. The Frenchman was the second car on the road, and took advantage of the lead he managed to gain on Day 1 as he captured 1st place at the end.
- The driving itself felt good and we didn't have any problems with the car. Nevertheless, the gap to Loeb grew way too big, and we have to come up with a solution to that problem. We need to get more speed, stated Hirvonen.
In practice, Hirvonen's only chance is to increase his speed by taking more risks.

- The upcoming WRC events, such as the Acropolis Rally of Greece and Neste Rally, are fast races that fit our cars very well, so we should be in a good position to try and improve our speed.
On the last two days of Rally d'Italia Sardegna, Hirvonen managed to close the gap to Loeb from nearly a minute to 10.6 seconds.
Thanks to his victory, the Frenchman shrank Hirvonen's lead in the WRC standings to three points.

- All in all, a great race with regards to the driving, even though I didn't win. Full throttle from start to finish without any problems, reflects Hirvonen.
The special feature of the rally for Hirvonen was the battle against his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala on Sunday. The two of them were dead even after the second leg, trailing Loeb by 30 seconds. At the end, Hirvonen finished second and Latvala third.

- We agreed with the team that we would battle it out for the first two legs, and check the situation before the third. I really aced the first leg, but hit a rock at the beginning of the second and slowed down a bit after that.
Hirvonen managed to seal his second place by beating Latvala by 5.5 seconds on the first two legs, as the team stopped their duel thereafter.