oh how I LOVE the days when everyone (Ford, Toyota, Subraru, Mitsubishi and whoever else was able to fight for victories) tried to out-slow each other at the end of the day...
now it's only Ford trying to out slow the Citroens...
to clarify the issue a little bit, the starting orders in the first day depends on the championship situation, so if u're leading u start first. The starting order on the 2nd day (Saturday) depends on the finishing order of the first day (Friday), so that is where all the out-slowing happens as Saturday is usually longest of the rally and people don't want to be first on the road.
If I remembered correctly there were times when drivers could choose their starting order, obviously the leader chose first. And then it changed to the Top 10 reversed starting order, 10th start first, first start 10th. Now the FIA decided to go back to old fashion rallying (along with the ban on run flat tyres), and that's why the tactic is appearing again...