Friday midday wrap: Loeb heads close fight

Defending world champion leads as rivals lose time in the Spanish dust

By Franck Drui

21 October 2011 - 13:32
Friday midday wrap: Loeb heads (...)

The battle for victory on RallyRACC-Rally de Espana is tightly poised following this morning’s opening three stages.

Sebastien Loeb, bidding for a seventh consecutive win in Spain, tops the leaderboard in his Citroen DS3 WRC. But with Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala just 5.3s behind heading into the afternoon loop of three repeated tests, the battle for victory is wide open.

In the race for the world crown, Mikko Hirvonen, who started the event equal on points with Loeb, has endured a troubled morning. Running second on the road behind Loeb, the Ford driver lost time in heavy dust clouds created by Loeb’s car. After three stages, Hirvonen is fourth overall 24.6s behind Sebastien Ogier.

In fact, hanging dust proved a major hindrance to the bulk of the crews on the all-gravel opening test, which claimed Petter Solberg, Ken Block and Super 2000 World Rally Championship title contender Ott Tanak, who reportedly struck the same drainage culvert approximately 16 kilometres into the test.

“The first stage was good for me but even I had some dust from the zero car staying in the air,” said stage-one winner Loeb, whose margin over Hirvonen is a sizable 35.6s.

Ogier has underlined the pace of Citroen’s DS3 by clocking the fastest time on stages two and three. While the Frenchman is only three points behind Loeb and Hirvonen in the championship fight, he is under orders to support Loeb at the expense of his own title ambitions. He is 11.9s adrift of top spot.

Dani Sordo is fifth in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC but was furious at the end of stage one after reporting a serious lack of visibility in the dust. The Spaniard has been tipped as a potential winner of his home rally but is almost one minute shy of leader Loeb.

Kris Meeke opted to pick up a 10-second time penalty by starting the opening stage one-minute behind schedule in the hope the dust clouds would have dispersed. He was rewarded with the fifth-fastest time in his MINI. The Briton is currently sixth overall.

Mads Ostberg has complained of handling problems in his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta due to the fact he’s having to use a Tarmac-specification differential for the mainly gravel roads. Team-mate Henning Solberg has lost ground with a faulty intercom. He’s eighth overall, one place ahead of Evgeny Novikov, who is competing in a DS3 WRC for the first time.

Matthew Wilson is 10th with FERM Power Tools World Rally Team driver Dennis Kuipers 11th. Team Abu Dhabi’s Khalid Al Qassimi, making his final appearance in this year’s WRC is 12th.

Petter Solberg’s hopes ended a little more than halfway through the first stage when he tore a wheel off his privateer Citroen. The Norwegian said he simply couldn’t see where he was going in the dust.

Ken Block was another early casualty when he damaged the steering of his Monster World Rally Team Ford Fiesta on stage one.

A suspected engine fault has scuppered Kimi Raikkonen’s bid in his ICE 1 Racing Citroen, while brake problems have hampered Federico Villagra in his Munchi’s Fiesta.

Patrik Flodin leads the Production Car world championship standings following Hayden Paddon’s early exit. The PWRC champion’s Subaru Impreza suffered an electrical failure prior to the opening stage. Michal Kosciuszko is second in his Mitsubishi Lancer.

With Tanak out of the SWRC battle, title rival Juho Hanninen says he is “taking it easy” in his Red Bull Skoda. Nevertheless he is just 4.5s behind category leader Nasser Al-Attiyah. Craig Breen is third 5.0s behind with Martin Prokop, 7.1s down.

Standings after SS3:

Pos.DriverCarTime
01 S. LOEB / D. ELENA Citroën DS3 WRC 52m28.9s
02 J. LATVALA / M. ANTTILA Ford Fiesta RS WRC +5.3s
03 S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA Citroën DS3 WRC +11.9s
04 M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN Ford Fiesta RS WRC +36.5s
05 D. SORDO / C. DEL BARRIO MINI WRC +57.4s
06 K. MEEKE / P. NAGLE MINI WRC +1m24.6s
07 M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1m32.5s
08 H. SOLBERG / I. MINOR Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1m48.6s
09 E. NOVIKOV / D. GIRAUDET Citroën DS3 WRC +2m19.0s
10 N. AL-ATTIYAH / G. BERNACCHINI FORD Fiesta S2000 +2m31.5s
11 J. HÄNNINEN / M. MARKKULA SKODA Fabia S2000 +2m36.0s
12 C. BREEN / G. ROBERTS FORD Fiesta S2000 +2m36.5s
13 M. PROKOP / J. TOMÁNEK FORD Fiesta S2000 +2m38.6s
14 M. WILSON / S. MARTIN Ford Fiesta RS WRC +2m53.1s
15 J. MAURIN / O. URAL FORD Fiesta S2000 +3m01.0s

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