SS6 : Loeb builds slight advantage

« This was a good stage »

By Franck Drui

6 May 2011 - 16:31

Sebastien Loeb has regained his advantage in his efforts to win Rally d’Italia Sardegna for a fourth time by going fastest on Friday’s sixth stage.

The Citroen DS3 WRC driver now leads Mikko Hirvonen, in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, by 5.8 seconds with two stages of day one remaining.

“I had a good grip in this stage but I was pushing very hard because that is my only option,” said Loeb, who was 2.1s quicker than team-mate Sebastien Ogier. “This was a good stage.”

Hirvonen reported surviving a moment in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC: “I was lucky,” he said at the stage finish.

Mads Ostberg managed to rectify the brake problems that hampered him on stage five but said he was too cautious through the test. He remains sixth overall with Petter Solberg climbing ahead of Evgeny Novikov into fourth.

Standings after SS6:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	1h08m27.7s
02	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+5.8s
03	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+29.1s
04	P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON	Citroën DS3 WRC	+33.5s
05	E. NOVIKOV / S. PREVOT	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+43.0s
06	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+46.6s
07	D. SORDO / C. DEL BARRIO	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+1m14.5s
08	O. TANAK / K. SIKK	FORD FIESTA S2000	+1m59.8s
09	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+2m06.5s
10	M. PROKOP / J. TOMANEK	Ford Fiesta S2000	+2m14.2s
11	J. HANNINEN / M. MARKKULA	SKODA FABIA S2000	+2m34.0s
12	A. ARAÚJO / R. MIGUEL	MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS	+3m25.8s
13	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+3m27.8s
14	H. SOLBERG / I. MINOR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+3m28.2s
15	K. AL QASSIMI / M. ORR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+3m48.8s