Zoom Loeb leads at home

The 13th round of the World Rally Championship has gotten underway with the launching of Rallye de France-Tour de Corse this morning.

The first stage to be contested on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Corsica was the Acqua Doria-Serra di Ferro route, probably the most technical of this asphalt event with all its twists, dips, jumps, and crests greeting the drivers to start the day.

As could be expected at this venue Sebastien Loeb set the pace for this stage, taking 9:27.4 to navigate his works Citroen C4 WRC through the narrow and tricky itinerary. Four seconds away, Mikko Hirvonen followed his title rival across the finish line to take second place for the official Ford team.

"I think that this event will be much harder on tyres than Spain as the roads are more abrasive," said Loeb.

The two frontrunners' respective teammates came next with Dani Sordo aboard the other Citroen team car and François Duval driving his Ford Focus RS.

"It was a very difficult stage, which was surprisingly slippery," reported Duval. "I need to get better on the next stage. "

Ten seconds off the best time, Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala signed the fifth-fastest result, with Subaru drivers Chris Atkinson and Petter Solberg in tow at the controls of their blue Impreza WRC2008s.

"That wasn't so easy for us," admitted Akinson. "The car is sliding a lot."

Urma Aava's Citroen C4 was eighth-fastest, with the Ford machines driven by Andreas Mikkelsen and Matthew Wilson completing the top ten list for this stage.

Sebastien Loeb set himself as the first leader of the rally with a lead timed at exactly four seconds on Mikko Hirvonen. Dani Sordo is third a half-second behind, followed by François Duval. Ten seconds off Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala rounds off the top five so far.

The next stage on the schedule is the tricky Portigliolo-Bocca Albitrina route.

Daniel BASTIEN
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