BP-Ford Abu Dhabi drivers stay in top five

Abu Dhabi: After 157.32 km of gruelling mountain rallying, the BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team's Finnish driving duo - Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen - entered the third and final day of Rally of Mexico in third and fifth place, respectively.

Facing two identical loops of three speed tests in the hot and dusty mountains north and east of the Leon rally base, mechanical problems effectively ended the first-day leader Latvala's quest for victory - a broken turbo pipe on his Abu Dhabi branded car making him lose more than two minutes and handing the lead to Citroen's Sebastien Loeb.

With the day's route in the Mexican hills taking competitors up to 2,600 metres, Hirvonen's luck was also in short supply - a double puncture when running fourth costing the World Rally Championship drivers' standings leader significant time.

'Not over yet'

BP-Ford Abu Dhabi team director Malcolm Wilson later said: "Jari-Matti's problems were unfortunate - he is still third though and so many drivers have had problems that the rally isn't over yet.

"Mikko had a tough day, but he made it back and will be out there battling for points on the final day."

Yesterday's final day of racing was scheduled to be a short, sharp affair with drivers facing four stages covering 60.69km.

Defending world champion Loeb opened up a 1min 00.7sec-lead over Australia's Chris Atkinson, with the Subaru driver finding himself promoted to second place after Latvala's Ford Focus suffered mechanical trouble.