Loeb and Sordo hold firm
The fight between Citroën Total World Rally Team’s two drivers and their rivals has continued to keep spectators entertained on the 2009 Rally Finland. Sébastien Loeb is still only seconds behind Mikko Hirvonen, while Dani Sordo has succeeded in standing his ground ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala. Sébastien Ogier has climbed to seventh in the Citroën Junior Team-run C4 WRC.

Overnight rain has had a noticeable effect on the conditions, handing a slight advantage to the crew running first on the road.

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena began the day in second position and posted three second-fastest times this morning to drop 6.6 seconds to the leader after 57.24km of competitive action: "We lost a bit of ground on all three tests this morning. The conditions aren’t so good for us because we are running second on damp stages behind Hirvonen. The gap has slowly widened, but I am going as fast as I can. We will do all we can to reverse the situation this afternoon after making some adjustments to the set-up at service. We’ve got to give it a try."

Dani Sordo and Marc Marti succeeded in consolidating their footing on the podium by beating Jari-Matti Latvala on today’s opening test: "My car is handling well but the conditions aren’t so favourable. I know where I’m losing ground. We are having a good fight with Latvala. It’s very close, and very exciting."

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia have climbed from overnight ninth to complete SS13 in seventh spot: "It’s been a positive morning. The conditions were slippier after the first cars had been through. I drove cautiously to check my notes, although I pushed a little harder on the final stage of the loop because I had committed it to memory better. We will try to push even harder this afternoon."

Conrad Rautenbach and Daniel Barritt also gained a place this morning and are now inside the top-10: "Traction was a little more difficult to find given this morning’s conditions. It took me a bit of time to wake up, but I felt more comfortable in the second and third stages. We will raise the ground clearance for the second pass, although the return of sunshine should see the roads dry out. It should be easier."

After contesting Friday evening’s Killeri super-special, Evgeny Novikov and Dale Moscatt were able to restart today under the SupeRally ruling: "It’s been a pretty positive morning and we drove at our own pace in order to get a feel for the stages. Our objective now is to improve on our times second time round."

Crews will contest the same three stages this afternoon before returning to Jyväskylä for service where the first car is due to check in at 2.48pm.

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