Rally // News

30 January 2009

Aava leads after morning stages

"It’s really fantastic - I almost can’t say anything - it’s a dream come true," Aava said. "We made a good choice with the winter tyre, and it looks like Mikko and Sebastien made some small mistakes, so we have an advantage. Now we have to keep on driving. I don’t know how Loeb is going so fast on the slick tyre - he must be crazy."

Ominously, his lead had been reduced from 22sec to 6.7sec by Loeb, after the Frenchman took his second stage win of the day.

After Stage 1 Loeb described conditions as "impossible" and told Rally Ireland he was "not taking any chances". Similarly, Dani Sordo was amazed at the difficulties he faced on Stage One.

"It was an incredible stage - very difficult to drive and the final part was very dangerous," he said.

Conditions appeared to improve somewhat for Loeb in Stage 2 - but he was still looking forward to getting back to base!

"It was much better but conditions were still extremely hard," he said. "On the first stage I did not want to take any chances, on the second stage we had much better grip but it is a long way to the finish."

However, Loeb managed to master these conditions better than anyone and he leads the rally.

On a typically wet, windy late January morning, the conditions proved challenging for even some of the best drivers in the world. The overwhelming consensus after this morning's first three stages was that, if anything, Rally Ireland 2009 was going to be even tougher than anticipated.

Jari-Matti Latvala got off to a flyer on the 22.25km first stage around Glenboy on the Sligo/Leitrim border but the signs were ominous for the Finn right from the start.

"It was very difficult, in some places I saw almost nothing," he told Rally Ireland after Stage One. However, worse was to come on Stage Two, when he was forced to retire from the race when he punctured his front left wheel and suffered a broken track control arm and broken drive shaft. A right rear puncture compounded the misery and there was no going on.

The second part of what will be a very long day's rallying, starts again at 13.00 hours and concentrates on the Aughnasheelan area of north Co Leitrim. Large crowds are expected later for the highly anticipated night stage of the event, which begins at 19.00 hours in the Murley district of Co Fermanagh.

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