[Argentina Day 1] Sordo Holds Off Trio

Citroen’s number two Dani Sordo has held off a tight tussle with team mate Sebastien Loeb, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and privateer Petter Solberg at the end of the first day in Argentina.

Argentina is one of the WRC’s classic events and almost 15,000 fans watched the opening action last night in a spectacular 2.40km test inside Cordoba’s international soccer stadium.

The action continued today as competitors headed north of the event’s Carlos Paz base for two loops of four speed tests in the hills and mountains of the Punilla Valley, covering a further 139.76km.

An unusual spell of hot weather in the south American autumn left the gravel roads in rough condition, and huge dust trails spiralled into the sky with the passage of each car. Temperatures were more than 10ºC below the 27ºC experienced yesterday and cloudy skies delivered a few drops of rain in the stages and heavier downpours in the Carlos Paz service park.

At the midday service Sordo, Loeb, Hirvonen and Jarri-Matti Latvala had all held a share of the lead, but it was Sordo who attacked during the afternoon stages to lead by 5.1 seconds at the end of the day.

Sordo though will be hard pushed to hold the lead tomorrow running first on the road and sweeping the dry gravel. “I’m not going to turn my nose up at being in the lead of the Rally Argentina. The crowd is even more fired up than ever! I know it won’t be easy for me tomorrow, but then rallying never is easy. I will only have one option, and that will be to attack!”

With Hirvonen second and Loeb third the sensation of the day was Solberg in his 2005 spec Citroen Xsara World Rally Car. “I’m really happy about today,” said Petter Solberg. “Being fourth is a good position for tomorrow, and it’s only a couple of seconds behind Loeb. We found the perfect set-up for the car this morning, and it was really good.”

Latvala dropped time during the afternoon when he suffered a flat tyre after a heavy jump. “I approached a crest too quickly and the car landed on the rear right wheel. The impact pushed the tyre from the rim and I drove for 12km like that.”

The second day takes competitors south-west of Carlos Paz for some of the season’s classic stages. After leaving at 07:00, they face two identical loops of four tests before a second pass over the super special stage at Cordoba stadium.

Leading positions after SS9:
1. Dani Sordo (Citroen C4 WRC) 1h45m11.3s
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus WRC08) +5.1s
3. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen C4 WRC) +16.3s
4. Petter Solberg (Citroen Xsara WRC) +18.9s
5. Henning Solberg (Ford Focus WRC08) +47.9s
6. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus WRC08) +1m06.4s
7. Matthew Wilson (Ford Focus WRC08) +2m23.0s
8. Federico Villagra (Ford Focus WRC08) +2m38.9s
9. Sebastien Ogier (Citroen C4 WRC) +3m14.4s
10. Conrad Rautenbach (CitroenC4 WRC) + 3m48.2s