Loeb out front but Sordo pushing for second

Citroen’s superstar Sebastien Loeb said that his objective was just to get to the end of today’s four stages on the Rallye de Espana without any heroics.

Instead, the man who had it all to do was his team mate Dani Sordo - and even then it was going to be a fight for second place rather than overall honours.

For Dani, it would be a case of deja-vu if he managed it, because he’s been second to Sebastien Loeb every year since 2006: a somewhat demoralising situation. But the Spaniard is feeling upbeat after winning both of this morning’s two stages.

“If your team mate is Sebastien Loeb, you have to accept that it is going to be really tough,” said Sordo. “He’s just so good everywhere. But I’m pushing as hard as I can. Once the tyres warmed up, I got plenty of good grip and I felt comfortable with the car.”

Sordo started the day with a 16-second deficit to claw back from Petter Solberg; he grabbed five of them on the first stage alone and followed that up by taking another 1.2 seconds on SS14 before service at the Port Aventura theme park. He now has 10.8 seconds to make up to Solberg in the 46 competitive kilometres that remain.

The Ford drivers had a muted start to the final day, with Jari-Matti Latvala falling back from the battle for the podium after stopping the clocks 18 seconds slower than Sordo on the opening stage. “I knew from the beginning that we didn’t have many possibilities to get in front of Sordo today, but I still don’t know exactly why we are lagging behind,” he reported.

The other Ford of Mikko Hirvonen had nothing to gain in a lonely fifth, with a five-minute deficit to his team mate following a turbo pipe problem yesterday. Nonetheless, he remained ahead of Stobart-Ford’s Matthew Wilson, who was also unchallenged in sixth. “I made a few changes to the differential, but it didn’t work as we expected,” he said. “I didn’t really enjoy the second short stage.”

Behind him was Hungarian privateer Frigyues Turan, on his first rally in a Ford Focus WRC, but he crashed heavily 40 kilometres into the opening stage of the day, unfortunately breaking his collarbone.

The Citroen Junior Team’s Sebastien Ogier is on a mission to finish 10th and claim a solitary driver’s point, after breaking his front suspension yesterday against a guardrail. So far he faces an uphill struggle, lying 11th overall with 54 seconds separating him from a points finish.

Local man Yeray Lemes lost the Junior World Rally Championship lead after picking up a puncture on the first stage this morning in his Renault Clio S1600, which he was forced to stop and change for more than two minutes. Hans Weijs Jr took over the lead in his Citroen C2 S1600 and is still on track to lift the title.

Conditions remain dry and warm as the drivers head off for the final two stages before the finish at 1500hrs.

Overall standings after SS14: