Tyres Punctured During WRC Second Race
It looked like Latvala had the race in the bag until an incident left him with a flat car tyre. He had powered through the stages and was around half a minute ahead of his rival Mikko Hirvonen. Mikko had been working hard to make up the difference but had lost confidence in his own tyre setup designed to ease tyre wear.
Latvala’s punctured off-side front tyre happened when he hit a sharp rock. This reduced his lead in front of Mikko to only eight seconds! At this point the race could have gone either way but Mikko’s tyres were worn and this gave Latvala the final opportunity to pull away and win the race by an incredible sixteen second lead! He first won this rally four years ago when he was the youngest ever to win a world rally championship, taking the crown from Latvala’s hero Henri Toivonen who held the previous record.
Incredibly Latvala’s team mate hit the same rock causing the same damage. Unfortunately for Peter Solberg he lost third place due to the punctured car tyre giving the position away to Mads Ostberg. How unlucky for the two Fords to hit the same rock and both puncture their car tyres!