Rally GB: Struggling Mikko Hirvonen ready to gamble on day two
Mikko Hirvonen says he is ready to gamble on his tyre selection in an effort to improve on his overnight fifth place at the end of the opening day of Rally GB
The Citroen-driving Finn ended the day 53.8 seconds behind leader Jari-Matti Latvala after what he admitted was a "stupid" tyre decision on the day's final stage, where he dropped 18.2s.
"I decided not to change the tyres," said Hirvonen. "I had two spares, but I thought I could get through the stage without changing them - this was stupid.
"The tyre was destroyed at the end. Now tomorrow, we have to gamble to make the fight with [fourth placed Mads] Ostberg.
"We don't know what the weather will do tomorrow, but if it is dry and we need the hard tyres then we can gamble more, we have nothing to lose."
Hirvonen added that he felt the set-up on his DS3 WRC had been awry through the opening day.
"The road was slippery this morning and even worse this afternoon," he said. "I was driving as hard as I could. We made some changes with the clicks on suspension today, but couldn't do much more.
"We could change it tonight, but do you know what the weather will do tomorrow and what set-up we will need?"
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