LOEB STILL IN DRIVING SEAT
author: Andries van der Walt
Sebastien Loeb continues to edge closer to his eighth victory on Rallye Deutschland.
The Frenchman extended his lead to 23 seconds over Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo following Saturday’s opening four stages, which included the punishing 48-kilometre Panzerplatte test.
“It’s been a good morning,” said the six-time world champion. “The gravel section on the first stage was quite interesting because we are obviously not on the right tyres for those conditions but it was not really a problem. Dani was not far behind after eight stages so I had to keep pushing. My time on Panzerplatte was down to managing the tyre by judging my pace and knowing the limit of the tyre.”
Although Sordo is under orders to hold station in second, he went faster than Loeb through stage eight, St Wendeler Land. However, Sordo had to give best to Loeb on the morning’s other three runs. “It’s important we finish with some good points for the championship but of course I will continue to try and push,” he said.
Ford Focus driver Jari-Matti Latvala was third overall until he spun onto some grass 10 kilometres before the finish of Panzerplatte, which dropped him to fourth, 8.9s behind new third-placed driver Sebastien Ogier, who said he wasn’t happy with his speed despite reporting his Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC had “good balance”.
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