LOEB SETS EARLY PACE ON RALLY GERMANY
author: Andries van der Walt
It was all Sebastien Loeb in his Citroen C4 on the first three stages at the start of the Rally Germany in Thrier this morning. Loeb won all three the first stages. Second, and third positions were all held by Citroen drivers, while the Ford driver, Jari-Matti Latvala, fresh from his win on the Rally Finland, was 4th.
Sebastien Loeb made it a clean sweep of stage wins on Friday morning by setting the fastest time through the Moselland test.
The rally leader had a trouble-free run through the 19km stage despite a damaged rear wheel on his Citroen, collected when he side-swiped a barrier on the previous stage.
Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo was second fastest through Moselland to hold second place overall. Petter Solberg set the third fastest stage time.
Sebastien Ogier was more than 20 seconds slower than Loeb though the stage. The Frenchman said the anti-stall system on his C4 WRC had failed, causing him to stop several times at hairpin corners.
Mikko Hirvonen, in a Ford Focus, lost third place to his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala after making a mistake at a junction and stalling near the start.
Stobart team driver Francois Duval ended the morning loop in eighth place after dropping time with a transmission problem. Duval’s Ford Focus RS WRC lost front-wheel drive 5km before the end of Stage two. He completed all of SS3 with rear-wheel drive only. Duval was making a come back to the WRC and was expected to give the Citroen drivers a run for their money since he is regarded as a master on the asphalt surfaces.
1. 1 S. LOEB 0.0
2. 2 D. SORDO +8.2
3. 4 J. LATVALA +37.0
4. 3 M. HIRVONEN +40.6
5. 7 S. OGIER +50.1
6. 5 M. WILSON +1:40.5
7. 8 K. RÄIKKÖNEN +2:01.0
8. 6 F. DUVAL +2:18.5
9. 11 P. SOLBERG +2:46.7
10. 43 K. BLOCK +3:04.1
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