Day 1 – Sordo and Loeb heading for a Citroen double?

The Citroën drivers are present for the 5th round of the season. Dani Sordo and Sébastien Loeb are indeed leading the Jordan Rally after the eight stages of this first day. They are ahead of the two BP Ford drivers in the Middle Eastern rally terrain.

The Spanish driver took the lead of the rally right from the first special stage while Loeb was in 5th position. Both drivers remained consistent, but Loeb was decisive in special stages 5 and 6, allowing him to come back to just one second and one-tenth behind his teammate.

Loeb was uncomfortable with the settings of his Citroën C4 at the beginning of the day and nearly made big mistakes. However, he avoided them, which was not the case for the Suzuki drivers or Peter Solberg in particular. The latter, on the Subaru, was heading for a podium finish before violently hitting a stone on the side of the road, losing more than six minutes and all chances of finishing well in this first rally in Jordan.

« We hit a stone with the front left wheel and the right shock absorber exploded », explains Solberg. « We had to stop because an oil leak caused a small fire. »

The Fords are indeed behind the Citroën, but with a very small gap since Jari-Matti Latvala, in third place, is only seven seconds behind Sordo and is ahead of his teammate, Mikko Hirvonen.

« I was satisfied until stage 7, but there, for the last stage, my tires are done… » Latvala was worried at the end of the day. « I hope we won’t have the same problem tomorrow! »

« I attacked like a madman during the last two stages and it paid off since we were the fastest, » commented Hirvonen. « Tomorrow, I think we can hope to get ahead, but points will satisfy me too! »

Despite Peter Solberg’s retirement, Atkinson saves the day for Subaru with a provisional fifth place. The Australian enjoys gravel rallies and proves it but remains more than a minute behind Sordo. He is ahead of the Estonian, also very impressive, Urmo Aava in a Citroën C4 WRC.

Stobart’s Gigi Galli dropped to sixth place after a spin into a bank and damaging the rear of his Ford Focus. Italy’s earlier retirement promoted young Citroën driver, Estonian Urmo Aava, into the top six, ahead of the Stobart duo of Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg – the latter recovering well after early brake issues.

Conrad Rautenbach finished the day in ninth place, but struggled to restart his Citroën after the final stage and seems to be struggling to get it back in service.

If Rautenbach retires from the leg, Munchi’s Ford driver Federico Villagra and Ford number three driver Khalid Al-Qassimi will be elevated to ninth and tenth.

Wilson and Henning Solberg hold the 7th and 8th positions for Stobart. They are making up for poor performances at the start of the rally due to brake issues. Gigi Galli, the team’s third driver, retired while in 6th position after encountering a very rare problem: « We hit something at the back and I saw the wheel come off. It may not have been secured well enough. »

Rautenbach is 9th. The Citroën driver finished 4th in the Argentine rally two weeks ago and hopes to score points here as well if his C4 performs well for the rest of the weekend. The African indeed could no longer start his Citroën after the last special stage. He is ahead of Villagra, who took back the 10th position from Al-Qassimi in stage 8.

Result of the first day of the 2008 Jordan WRC Rally