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BP-Ford Abu Dhabi Up Pressure On Rally De Espana’s Citroen Leaders


United Arab Emirates Al Qassimi Returns To Action After Friday Retirement










BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team continued to put the pressure on title rivals Citroen during the opening three stages of day two in Rally de Espana - round 12 of the 15-event FIA World Rally Championship series. Having ended Friday in third place - 23.6sec behind Citroen’s rally leader and four-time world champion, Sébastien Loeb – BP-Ford Abu Dhabi’s newly installed second driver, François Duval, today continued to set some blistering times. Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority-backed Duval clocked the second fastest time on the opening 38.27km El Priorat / La Ribera d’Ebre monster stage - the longest of the event. The Belgian then finished third in both the 8.60km Les Garrigues and the 17.12km La Llena runs to retain third place overall. Duval returned to the midday service 26.7sec behind second-placed Dani Sordo, Loeb’s team-mate. "I was at maximum attack this morning and I will stay at that pace to try to catch Dani," said the 27-year-old Belgian. "The roads twist more today and I like that, so I think that’s why my times are closer to Sordo than they were yesterday. The car still feels good, although there is small under-steer in long corners. There was a lot of dirt on the road in the final stage which made it slippery." Elsewhere, Duval’s BP-Ford Abu Dhabi team-mate, lead-driver Mikko Hirvonen, refused to give in as he kept the pair’s hotly-contested battle at full throttle by posting some solid times as he clocked up a hat-trick of fourth place stage finishes. “We changed the rear differential in service this morning which brought an improvement on the high-speed sections, but it also made the car more difficult to drive so there is still work to do. I have more pace and my times are closer to Loeb and Sordo, but I don’t have the killer feeling that I need to challenge because I’m not 100 per cent confident," said Hirvonen, who sits second behind Loeb in the overall drivers’ championship. "It’s frustrating that I can’t find something to get even closer to Loeb. It has been a while since I struggled with car set-up. I’m going to move closer to François’ set-up here at service and see what effect that has on the afternoon stages.” It was a day of recovery for the Abu Dhabi outfit’s third driver, UAE national Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi. After a heavy spin and crash into a concrete ditch during Friday’s stage six, the Emirati suffered severe damage to his rear differential. Despite having completed the day’s competitive action, Al Qassimi was forced to retire on the road liaison section en route back to the Salou service park, incurring a 10-minute SupeRally time penalty. Al Qassimi started the day in 42nd place but some measured driving today saw the 36-year old climb back up to 35th overall by the Rally de Espana midpoint. “It’s a shame as I felt I was driving well yesterday and decided to go for a big push on stage six. Unfortunately I had a huge spin on a fast corner – I was in fifth gear when it happened - and the car ended up in a ditch. I got it out and finished the stage but the differential began to make loud noises on the road section. It got progressively worse and I knew something was wrong so I had to stop," said Al Qassimi. "It’s a shame because the rally is competitively over for me. I’ve used today as experience-building and practice for next week’s round in Corsica, another asphalt event. I’m looking at the positives because some of my split times on several stages have been in the top ten, and if I can find good rhythm tomorrow and gain more experience on asphalt, I’ll be in a good position for France.”

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