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Rally of Argentina: Hirvonen has already set his sights on the Rally of Jordan

29. March, 2008

Mikko Hirvonen is waiting anxiously for the Rally of Jordan, to be driven on April 24-27. The race will be driven on fast gravel roads and it's a new race for everyone, so it gives the Ford drivers a good chance to narrow Sebastian Loeb's lead in the World Rally Championship, which he managed to gain in the Rally of Argentina. Hirvonen is currently second in the WRC standings.

- I don't need to drive as the first car in Friday's stage as I'm not leading the drivers' table. Now it's Loeb who gets to take out the gravel from the racing lines for the rest of us, says Hirvonen.

Hirvonen finished fifth in the Rally of Argentina. Loeb collected his fourth consecutive win in Argentina. Hirvonen's race stalled once during the first stage of the rally, but he restarted on Saturday. The current WRC rules allow a sidelined driver to resume the race at the start of the next stage.

Hirvonen was really flying in the first stage of the Rally of Argentina. He gained a 48-second lead in the 18-kilometre stage. By the fifth stage, he had increased the gap to 50 seconds. But then he ran out of luck.

- I was making a left turn and my wheel opened up completely when it hit a rock. The hit tore up the track control arm in the front suspension. If the wheel had gone over the rock in a straight line, nothing would've happened. I was really disappointed, says Hirvonen reflecting on the incident.

During the last two stages, Hirvonen climbed from 23rd to 5th place and is still very much in the title race.

- The current situation is pretty different compared to the alternative scenario in which we would've ended up with no points at all. The upcoming races, such as Jordan, Sardinia and Greece, suit my driving style. If everything goes well, I could regain the lead in the WRC standings by the summer break, predicts Hirvonen.

Before heading to Jordan, Team Ford has planned to do some testing.

- I made some tests with suspension during the last two days of the Rally of Argentina. However, the conditions were so bad due to the rain that those tests didn't give us any useful information. Nevertheless, I believe that we can tune our cars pretty easily for the fast gravel roads and get the best possible performance from our cars in Jordan, says Hirvonen.