11 Mar 12

Mikko
Hirvonen's
good,
bad and
ugly

Mikko Hirvonen admits that his chances of winning Rally Guanajuato Mexico are probably over, now that he's more than half a minute behind his illustrious team-mate Sebastien Loeb. But it's far from being all bad news, as he explains...

The good: “I feel that I’m really getting on top of the Citroen now. It’s funny because it’s a very different feeling to the Fiesta and it took me a little while to realise it. If you push the Citroen really hard, it doesn’t make that much difference. If you take a step back, and drive smooth and relaxed, that’s when the times come.”

The bad: “In terms of speed today wasn’t quite so good as yesterday. But the main thing is I know the places that I’m losing time and how it’s happening - so that definitely means that I can improve.”

The ugly: On the final stage of the day, the flying Finn had a big surprise - thanks Evgeny Novikov going off in his Ford Fiesta. “I came around a corner and suddenly found a suspension upright right in the middle of the road! I couldn’t avoid hitting it and I was sure that we had a puncture but in the end I only bent the steering. You never know what you’re going to meet...”