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Loeb the early leader in France

News after SS2

By Franck Drui

1 October 2010 - 10:10

Sebastien Loeb got his bid for victory on Rallye de France off to a great start by winning Friday’s opening two stages and moving into a 7.3 second overall lead.

After rain overnight, conditions were damp and slippery on the Hohlandsbourg and Firstplan stages, with many drivers reporting tricky conditions as the roads became mud spattered.

The choice of tyres for the conditions was straightforward, with all WRC drivers electing to fit Pirelli PZeros in soft compound.

Loeb was 3.9sec quicker than anybody else through the opening 9.9km Hohlandsbourg (SS1), with Sebastien Ogier, also in a Citroen C4 WRC, his closest rival.

Citroen privateer Petter Solberg got closest to Loeb’s stage winning time on SS2 - completing the 16.58km stage 2.1seconds slower.

Overall standings after SS2:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	Sébastien LOEB	Citroën C4 WRC	13m38.3s
02	Sébastien OGIER	Citroën C4 WRC	+7.3s
03	Petter SOLBERG	Citroën C4 WRC	+8.3s
04	Dani SORDO	Citroën C4 WRC	+9.6s
05	Jari-Matti LATVALA	Ford Focus WRC	+18.1s
06	Mikko HIRVONEN	Ford Focus WRC	+29.2s
07	Kimi RAIKKONEN	Citroën C4 WRC	+43.6s
08	Federico VILLAGRA	Ford Focus WRC	+1m12.3s
09	Ken BLOCK	Ford Focus WRC	+1m12.8s
10	Frigyes TURAN	Peugeot 307 WRC	+1m17.5s
11	Matthew WILSON	Ford Focus WRC	+1m19.4s
12	Khalid AL QASSIMI	Ford Focus WRC	+1m25.9s
13	Yvan MULLER	Citroën Xsara WRC	+1m27.8s
14	Henning SOLBERG	Ford Fiesta S2000	+1m28.4s
15	Eyvind BRYNILDSEN	Skoda Fabia S2000	+1m34.2s