Less than a second separated the two drivers heading into special stage four, but only Hirvonen managed to cross the finish line. The Frenchman crashed out some 1.3 kilometers into the aforementioned stage and it is unlikely that he'll continue in the event.
“I saw 1.3 kilometres from the start Sebastien was off the road," said Hirvonen. "It looks like he's rolled, but it didn't look too bad. After that I took it very, very steady because I didn't want to make the same mistake. Very strange,” said Hirvonen at the end of the stage.
Loeb's bad luck commenced from as early as this morning, as a cooling fan problem was discovered at his Citroen C4 following yesterday's super special stage. The team managed, however, to get it fixed in due time and everything seemed to be on track for a nice recovery on Friday.
Hirvonen's slowing down for the remainder of the stage helped his teammate take victory in the SS4, as he arrived 4 full seconds ahead of his fellow countryman. Citroen's second driver Dani Sordo lost another couple of seconds during the same stage, as he is now 3rd overall, over 12 seconds behind leader Hirvonen.
Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda Fabia WRC) is currently on a surprising 4th place overall after the first 4 stages, as he put 3 more seconds behind him and 5th placed Petter Solberg during SS4. Completing the Top 8 are Citroen Junior's Sebastien Ogier and Stobart Ford duo Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson.
All cars will hit the Service Park after the Paprotki 1 stage, after which action will resume at 14.00 PM (local time) for SS5.
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