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Mikko Hirvonen gets airborne - Source: Reuters -
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Finland's Mikko Hirvonen led the Rally of Poland for Ford on Saturday after Citroen's world champion Sebastien Loeb hit trouble for the third race in a row.
Frenchman Loeb, who had seemed to be cruising towards a sixth successive title when he won the first five rallies of the season, crashed into a hidden tree stump early in the third stage and broke a wheel.
"I hit a tree stump just on the side of the road which I didn't see on the recce (pre-race reconnaissance) because it was covered by sand," said Loeb, who is just seven points ahead of Hirvonen in the championship and risks being overtaken by the Finn on Monday.
"We hit it with the right-hand front wheel and that's totally broken. It's not so good."
Loeb's team said they were examining the damage to see whether he could rejoin the rally on Sunday with a considerable time penalty.
The Frenchman crashed out of the Acropolis Rally in Greece this month and finished only fourth in Sardinia after receiving a two-minute penalty for breaching the safety rules. There are four rallies remaining after Poland.
Hirvonen ended the day's six stages around the lakes of northern Poland 8.9 seconds ahead of his compatriot and team mate Jari-Matti Latvala.
The Ford drivers shared the stage wins with three each.
"I want 10 points from here and after Loeb's accident I must think about the championship now," Hirvonen's team quoted the leader as saying.
"After I saw Loeb's car I eased my pace because I didn't want to make the same mistake. I had marked the tree stump that he hit in my pace notes and actually discussed it with Jari-Matti before we started this morning," he added.
"It's a new rally with new pace notes so that kind of accident can happen to anyone and I can't afford to do anything stupid tomorrow."
Citroen's Spanish driver Dani Sordo was in third place, 37 seconds off the pace, ahead of the Norwegian Solberg brothers Petter and Henning for Citroen and Ford respectively.
Drivers praised the fast stages while occasional showers failed to discourage large numbers of spectators from crowding the most spectacular parts of the course.
