Hirvonen flies Ford flag as going gets tough.

An incredibly dramatic second leg of the Cyprus Rally sidelined both Ford BP Rallye Sport pairings of Markko Martin and Michael Park and team-mates Francois Duval and Stephane Prevot today.

But inexperienced Finns Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen survived a day of carnage among the leading drivers to hold sixth in their privately-run Focus RS World Rally Car to keep Ford in the hunt for points on this seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship.

After a surprisingly low retirement rate yesterday, predictions that today's second leg, comprising eight speed tests and 158.35km of competition, would take a higher toll lived up to their mark. Intense heat and some of the roughest road conditions encountered in the rally calendar accounted for nine top drivers - the highest rate of attrition witnessed on a single day in a championship round for many years.

The drama began when both Martin and Duval's Focus RS World Rally Cars were sidelined by the same problem within a kilometre of each other, just 6km into the opening 15.00km test from Kourdali to Asinou, high in the Troodos Mountains in the centre of the sun-kissed Mediterranean island.

Ford BP team director Malcolm Wilson said dust was to blame for the retirement of both cars. "The roads were covered with an enormous amount of loose dust, almost like dry cement. It found its way into the engine, blocked things up and when the oil pressure dropped to zero on both cars, the drivers had to stop.

"This isn't a problem with the engine itself but is similar to the troubles we had on Markko's car in Argentina. Since then we've re-designed the entire air intake system and tested widely in dusty conditions without problems. We had no difficulties in Greece but we must look at things again and that will be addressed immediately," he added.

Martin, seventh overnight, said conditions in the test were 'extreme'. "When I started the stage I knew that Francois had already had a problem so that was on my mind. A win wasn't likely after our troubles yesterday afternoon but we really wanted to score good points here. We planned to attack hard this morning but it obviously hasn't worked out that way," added the 27-year-old Estonian, winner of last month's Acropolis Rally in his Castrol-branded Focus RS.

Duval, lying 11th overnight, stopped in exactly the same place as when he retired last year. "There aren't many parking places on these roads but I've managed to find the same one for two years in a row," said the 22-year-old Belgian. "There was a lot of thick, heavy dust in the ruts and that caused the problem. The car wasn't broken but when we saw the oil pressure warning light flick on, we stopped."

Hirvonen, driving a 2002-specification Focus RS run by M-Sport, is competing in Cyprus for the first time and his primary target is to finish to gain as much experience of the event as possible. He kept out of trouble with a cautious approach and as his rivals fell by the wayside he climbed from an overnight 12th to sixth. His Focus never missed a beat in temperatures so hot that the 22-year-old Finn joked: "I won't want to have a sauna again after this rally!"

"I pushed enough this morning to keep Didier Auriol behind us, but not too hard. I was also catching Richard Burns but in the end I didn't need to catch him or stay ahead of Didier as both retired. It's a shame because I was looking forward to a bit of a battle with the championship leader! The car has been perfect and I knew there would be retirements and we could climb the order but I didn't think there would be this many. I settled for a good pace, have taken no risks and made no mistakes. This rally is much harder than the last one in Greece. It's really tough and I enjoy the roads less every time I go out there. It's exciting that we have a chance to score good points tomorrow but we must be careful as our early start position means the roads could be slippery," added Hirvonen.

Wilson added: "After the disappointment of losing our two drivers this morning, it's encouraging to see Mikko putting in such a strong performance and hopefully tomorrow he can extend Ford's proud record of scoring points in every world rally since Monte Carlo in 2002."

The privately-entered Focus RS of Alistair Ginley and Rory Kennedy lies eighth after overcoming oil pressure problems this afternoon.

The final day tomorrow covers only 82.86km of competition and is the shortest of the rally. After leaving Limassol at 07.30, drivers face two loops of three stages to the north-east before returning to the coastal town for the finish at 15.20. he bulk of the action is located in the hilly and forested Machairas area.