Sébastien Loeb closes on Petter Solberg

Sébastien Loeb remains third in the Wales Rally GB but is now less than four seconds behind second-placed Petter Solberg after the first three stages held on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, Mikko Hirvonen still holds fifth place overall.

The Citroën Total World Rally Team crews chose different tyres at the first service period: Sébastien Loeb opted to combine four soft tyres and two hard tyres, whilst Mikko Hirvonen chose to go with six Michelin Latitude Cross soft tyres.

After finishing down in fifth place in the fog on Crychan (SS7), Sébastien Loeb fought back on the next test to record his first stage win (Epynt). Continuing to attack on the drying roads, the no.1 DS3 WRC driver closed the gap to Petter Solberg even further on Halfway (SS9).

“The grip was a lot better on the last two stages and we were more competitive. We had two hard tyres, but we didn’t use them as the road surface wasn’t dry enough,” explained Seb. “I think we’ll have to forget about Latvala, who now has a clear lead in the overall standings. On the other hand, we are getting closer to Petter, so we’ll try and move ahead of him this afternoon.”

Frustrated by his time on SS7, Mikko Hirvonen was happier on the next two stages: “The grip is much better on dry ground. This morning, I really pushed as hard as possible, perhaps even harder than in Finland! We are still in the rally and we are going to try and close the gap to Ostberg.”

After stopping off at the Cardiff service park, the crews will complete the same loop of three stages this afternoon. The day’s racing is set to conclude with Celtic Manor, a stage held close to the Ryder Cup golf course. Crews are due to start arriving back in Cardiff from 7.13pm.