WRC: Hirvonen: Just nothing I could do...

maintains his current pace on the Rallye de France-Tour de Corse then he won't have a chance to claim the victory. Hirvonen finished the opening day on Friday 32.3 seconds behind Loeb and having been comprehensively outpaced by the Frenchman in all six tests, the Finn is not at all optimistic. Indeed he is more focused on keeping second and staying ahead of Francois Duval, who is just 1.7 seconds back in the sister BP Ford Abu Dhabi Focus RS WRC08. Whether Duval is a real threat though is unlikely, and even if the Belgian does get in front on Saturday, Mikko is likely to again benefit from team orders, as he is still in with a chance of taking the drivers' title. "I'm feeling much better at the end of the first day here than I did in Spain last week, but the gap to Sébastien Loeb is 32sec, which is still too big for my... [read full story]