SS9: Sordo leaps up to second place

Citroen Total team driver Dani Sordo put in a remarkable performance on Saturday’s opening stage - the 30km Resolfen - jumping up the leaderboard from sixth to second place - and less than one second off the lead.

Running as sixth car on the road, Sordo made the most of a beneficial starting position for the damp and icy conditions which caused problems for the first cars though. But despite setting a time 18sec better than anybody else, Sordo wasn’t completely happy with his performance. “It’s not bad but I didn’t drive very well,” he said. “I lost a lot of time at the end - it’s really difficult to see where it’s slippery.”

Rally leader Jari-Matti Latvala tackled the stage first and only managed to set the sixth fastest time. “I had no chance,” he said. “As first car it’s frosty and slippery and it’s so much easier for the guys behind who can see my braking points. I knew this would happen. I hope the ones ahead will be better.”

Sebastien Loeb was the second driver through and completed in the third fastest time. The Frenchman, however, remained unhappy about tackling icy stages on gravel tyres without safety notes. “It’s very dangerous,” he said. “There are lots of very tricky parts, lots of ice about, and we have no information. It’s really bad and I don’t like it. The problem here is the ice in the mornings. For safety we could really do with gravel crews.”

The stage claimed two high-profile casualties. First to hit trouble was Mads Ostberg, the Norwegian privateer who held fourth overnight. Ostberg crossed the finish line in a decent time but the engine in his Impreza sounded bad and his car was trailing oil. “The engine has failed and we have to retire,” said a devastated Ostberg, who nevertheless drove off to the next stage.

Sebastien Ogier’s excellent WRC debut came to an end on an icy corner 2km before the finish. The Frenchman’s C4 WRC slid wide off the road and rolled into a ditch. Before the roll Ogier had been eighth.

Subaru World Rally Team driver Petter Solberg moved up to fourth but felt he could have done better. The Norwegian was 20 seconds quicker than Jari-Matti Latvala at the mid-point split but lost 15 second over the second half. “It worked very well from the start but halfway through the dampers dropped off and I lost all the feeling,” explained Solberg. “But we’ll keep pushing. There’s a long way to go and we’re going to keep trying to get to the top.”