Zoom Loeb and Sordo have the pace

It is only the second stage in the warm temperatures of Corsica and already a possible pattern could be seen developing on the Portigliolo-Bocca Albitrina route.

With a best time of 9:21.9, Sebastien Loeb was the fastest driver to make his way across the bumpy and ageing tarmac. His works Citroen C4 was followed by that of teammate Dani Sordo, who took second place; the Spaniard also set the team's cars at the top of the overall rankings, as was the case over the last three rallies. A sign of things to come?

"I'm surprised by the lack of grip; I expected more and that was not the case," reported Loeb. "Despite that, everything is going fine for us."

The Ford team drivers raced to claim positions three and four, with François Duval 5.4 seconds late on the fastest time while Mikko Hirvonen completed his run a second later.

"I'm feeling fine in the car," said Hirvonen. "But Sebastien is pushing really hard. For the time being I cannot go any quicker."

Exactly on the 10-second delay mark, position five went to Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala once more, again arriving ahead of the Subaru teammates although this time Petter Solberg was quicker than Chris Atkinson.

Andreas Mikkelsen took the eighth spot with his Ford Focus. Both works Suzuki cars entered the top ten on this run, 30 seconds off the stage-winning time: P-G Andersson and Toni Gardemeister were separated by a mere tenth of a second as they took the ninth and tenth spots for their team.

Andreas Mikkelsen picked up a minute's penalty between stages one and two, reason unknown at present. Urmo Aava received a one-minute penalty for arriving late at control.

Sebastien Loeb stands at the top of the general rankings, 7.2 seconds ahead of teammate Dani Sordo. Slipping one place to third overall, Mikko Hirvonen is 10.4 seconds away from the rally leader, 2.3 ahead of teammate François Duval. Jari-Matti Latvala is fifth with a 20.6-second delay on Loeb.

The upcoming Arbellara-Aullene run will complete the morning loop.

Daniel BASTIEN
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