Sébastien Loeb holds narrow lead after first day of Wales Rally GB

RSL Staff

– November 11, 2011Posted in: Featured, News, WRC

Sébastien Loeb led the Wales Rally GB at the end of the first day on Thursday but his hopes of claiming an eighth successive world championship were harmed when his team-mate, Sébastien Ogier, crashed out on the opening stage.

The French Citroën driver Loeb, who has an eight-point advantage over the Finnish Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen going into this final race of the season, leads his title rival by only 0.7 seconds.

Loeb had been hoping Ogier would be able to help him fight off Hirvonen for the title by taking points off him but an accident in the opening stage meant the second Citroën driver was forced to miss stages two and three. Ogier will restart on Friday but is unlikely to claw his way back into a point-scoring position.

“It’s a shame,” Loeb said. “It can make it a little bit more difficult now. It was going to be better for me if somebody other than Mikko won the rally, because the difference between second and third place is smaller than first and second.

“It would have been good if he [Ogier] had been winning the rally. Now, if I don’t win and Mikko does, then it can come down to the powerstage and this is difficult. But this is how it is – I’m on my own now.”

Loeb has 222 points in the overall standings, with Hirvonen on 214. Ogier is third on 193.

Source: guardian.co.uk