WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP: FORD'S MIKKO Hirvonen cruised to victory in the Rally of Poland yesterday to take the lead in the 2009 World Rally Championship.

The Finn won by over a minute from the Citroen of Dani Sordo to claim his second consecutive win and overtake reigning champion Sebastien Loeb, moving a point clear at the top of the drivers’ standings.

Hirvonen spent the last day maintaining his advantage of around 10 seconds over team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, with title rival Loeb managing to fight his way back into the points after he had come to grief on the first full day of the event when he hit a tree stump and broke his front suspension on stage four.

The win means Hirvonen has turned a 20-point deficit to Loeb into a one-point lead in the space of just three rallies — a series of events that barely seemed credible after Loeb had won the first five events of the season.

But Hirvonen’s joy was tempered as Latvala relinquished his second place on the final stage of the event, a short Super Special in Mikolajki.

The Finn clipped a barrel on his way into a right hand corner, hitting a metal barrier and retiring on the spot, leaving Hirvonen stunned.

“It’s unbelievable, I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” said the 28-year-old. “It has been a fantastic weekend for me, but this is amazing.”