SS7: Loeb thrives as rain hits

Sebastien Loeb doubled his ADAC Rallye Deutschland lead on just one stage as Saturday morning kicked off with a surprise downpour on the Stein and Wein stage.

With most of the field on hard tyres, drivers were left floundering. Running first on the road actually proved fortuitous for Loeb, for although he encountered plenty of rain, conditions only got worse and worse for those following.

"We had heavy rain in the stage, but I had less than the others," Loeb acknowledged.

"It was really, really tricky. We are on hard tyres so it was very difficult to keep the car on the road.

"If I’d expected it, for sure I would’ve have soft tyres in the car."

Both Fords lost over 20 seconds to Loeb’s Citroen in the conditions, leaving Petter Solberg 41.8s behind and Jari-Matti Latvala 54.8s down.

"Unbelievable. I couldn’t drive any faster. I had no steering whatsoever," said Solberg.

Latvala reckoned his set-up was particularly inappropriate for rain, having gained pace when he went to harder settings during Friday.

"Let’s say that my car would’ve been good without the rain, but the rain came," said Latvala.

"My car is so stiff, I had to back off. There was no chance for me to be any quicker."

The Fords managed to pull clear of Thierry Neuville, who had three spins as his lack of experience made the conditions particularly daunting.

"It was horrible," said the Citroen Junior driver, who is now 25s behind Latvala. "I’m not used to the car on these tyres in the rain so I was completely lost."

Neuville lost a little time to the chasing Dani Sordo, but both drew away from Mikko Hirvonen, whose troubles included a spin as he came through over a minute slower than Loeb.