Rally Japan – Dag 1

The first day of Rally Japan are finished, and Petter is in fifth position. Mikko Hirvonen is leading the rally ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala in second. Sebastien Loeb is third, and on his way to secure the championship.

10 stages were on the itinerary today, but two of them were cancelled already this morning, due to the snowy conditions.  Duval had an accident on stage 6, and the stage was stopped afterwards. Duvals codriver, Patrick Pivato, was taken to hospital for surgery after the accident. Due to the delays after the accident, stage 8 was also cancelled.

Rally Japan continues with 10 more stages Saturday, first car is on the road at 0828 local time.

Overall classification, day 1

1. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford

2. Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford +26,2

3. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen +30,6

4. Chris Atkinson, Subaru +1.00,3

5. Petter Solberg, Subaru +1.02,0

6. Matthew Wilson, Ford +1.11,2

7. PG Andersson, Suzuki +1.11,6

8. Toni Gardemeister, Suzuki +1.36,8

9. Henning Solberg, Ford +1.46,6