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05/16/2008 - 12:14 PM
Sardinia, Italy
After a rare slip in Jordan, Loeb and Citroen appear loaded for bear in Sardinia. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
Sebastien Loeb put his stamp on Rally d'Italia by dominating Friday’s opening stages, ending the day with a 35.7-second lead over Citroen teammate Dani Sordo.
Having established a comfortable advantage over the field this morning, Loeb was able to drive more conservatively after the midday service and still pull away from his pursuers, while Sordo was similarly unchallenged in second place.
“It’s been a really good day for Citroen,” Loeb said. “Both cars in the first two positions – let’s hope it continues like this and we don’t have any problems like we did in Jordan.”
Sordo lost ground in SS5 after his intercom failed, forcing him to drive very cautiously in fast corners as he was unable to hear co-driver Marc Marti’s pace notes. But he was still able to extend the gap back to 18 seconds over Petter Solberg’s Subaru. Solberg surged past teammate Chris Atkinson and Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen to grab third position in the afternoon, despite brake glitches.
“We had brake problems on the next to last stage and lost the brakes on the stage, then on this stage we had a brake leak on the front,”
“This (performance) is down to the team and the engineers and their work on the dampers. That’s the only reason why we’re quicker, I’m not doing anything different at all. This is very good for Subaru – the whole team needs some proper success.”
Hirvonen stayed close to Solberg, finishing the day five seconds behind, with Atkinson now nine seconds adrift of the Ford and being caught by the charging Gigi Galli (Stobart Ford) and works Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who are both recovering from morning punctures.
Rally d'Italia leaders after day one:
Pos Driver Car Time
1) Loeb, Citroen, 1h31:27.6
2) Sordo, Citroen, +35.7sec
3) P. Solberg, Subaru, + 53.8
4) Hirvonen, Ford, +58.9
5) Atkinson, Subaru, +1:09.0
6) Galli, Ford, +1:12.3
7) Latvala, Ford, +1:31.1
8) H. Solberg. Ford. +1:52.5
9) Aava, Citroen, +2:19.8
10) Gardemeister, Suzuki, +2:22.9
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