Flying Frenchman Loeb extends lead in Spain

[~IronMan~]

Sat, Oct 23 11:48 PM

Enlarge Photo Citroen team driver Sebastien Loeb of France looks at his mechanics in a service park... Citroen's world champion Sebastien Loeb stretched his lead to 44.4 seconds over Norway's Petter Solberg on the second day of the Rally of Spain on Saturday.

Home favourite Daniel Sordo was third at just over a minute behind Loeb, who claimed an unprecedented seventh consecutive world championship crown on Oct. 3 and whose advantage in Spain is practically impossible to overhaul according to Solberg.

"I'm not kidding myself. Second place is the best I can hope for here and actually if we do that it will be a very good achievement," the Norwegian told the World Rally Championship (WRC) website (www.wrc.com).

Loeb said his team's cautious approach had paid dividends.

"It's been a great day and we have a good lead. We've had some fun in the stages but we're not taking any big risks," the Frenchman said.

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen were fourth and fifth, the Finns finishing one minute and 11 seconds and over six minutes behind respectively, while Loeb's countryman Sebastien Ogier had a day to forget after suspension problems ruled him out of the race following a promising opening day.

(Writing by Tom Pilcher in London; Editing by Sonia Oxley; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)





Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds