Ford team boss insists it's not over yet

BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team principal Malcolm Wilson insists that despite his two drivers slipping out of the top five, they can both put the leading Citroen’s under pressure on the two remaining days.

Wilson said that after hitting a rock embedded in the ground on SS16, both his drivers did their best to limit the time lost on the Superspecial.

Latvala ended the day as the leading BP-Ford entry, in sixth place and 1m 18sec adrift of rally leader Sebastien Loeb. Mikko Hirvonen is seventh, 17.5sec behind his team-mate.

But despite the time lost, Wilson said there was still plenty for the team to play for over the next two days.

“What’s happened is disappointing because they’ve both done a very good job today but we’ll see - this rally is definitely not over,” said Wilson. “We’ve seen today how difficult it is. It’s obviously rougher than it has been the last few years and we’re still not as far behind as we were in Sardinia. There are still two very difficult days to go so I’m sure we’ll put Citroen under a bit of pressure.”