WRC Poland

Poland was insanely fast and extremely tricky in some sections. The rally was new for everyone so good pace notes were very important. This was demonstrated in stage 4 when Loeb hit a well hidden tree stump that no one if the Citroen team had in their notes. With Loeb's bad luck continuing, Hirvonen had a great opportunity for another win and take the lead in the championship.

Hirvonen really delivered on day 2 with some impressive driving. Despite having difficult road conditions he kept pushing and managed to maintain his lead. In third place the charging Sordo touched 197 km/h in one section, just crazy, crazy fast. The three way battle for fourth between Ogier and the Solberg brothers was some of the best rallying I've seen this season. On stage 13 Petter stormed past his brother to take fifth and was just under 8 seconds behind Ogier.

Sordo's charge was halted on stage 14 because his notes used a marker that was not there in the rally, and so missed a braking point. Luckily he was able to continue. Also on stage 14 Petter Solberg developed an oil leak which halted his attack on Ogier. Ogier in turn had mechanical trouble on stage 16 which ended his rally and the fight fourth was over.

With Sordo out of the picture, Ford looked set for another one-two finish. Unbelievably, Latvala crashes in the 2km super special stage, breaks his steering, and goes out of the rally! Latvala was regaining his confidence and showing some really good pace the last few rallies, so this mistake will affect him well past this rally.

All-in-all Poland was an exciting rally, the best so far this season. Loeb had it all his way at the beginning, but now suddenly Hirvonen is the new leader of the driver's championship. Hirvonen looks re-energized and it shows in his driving. Really looking forward to the rest of season now.