Fords increase the pressure on SS8

Latvala and Hirvonen were the fastest two drivers through Saturday’s second stage - making further progress up the leaderboard and increasing the pressure on the leading Citroens.

Third placed Hirvonen narrowed the gap to Dani Sordo from 17.5sec before the stage to just 0.9sec. While Latvala’s fourth stage win of the rally moved him up to fourth - ahead of Galli - 18.4sec behind his BP-Ford team-mate.

After the disappointment of the first stage there was more bad news for Petter Solberg who lost about five minutes when he stopped to change a puncture. He dropped to 14th.