Stage 1 – Hirvonen leads… Loeb virtually crowned

Mikko Hirvonen is currently leading the final rally of the season in Great Britain. The Finn is ahead by about 40 seconds over his compatriot and teammate Marcus Gronholm, while Sébastien Loeb, third after this first stage of the Wales GB, is on track to succeed in his challenge.

The weather conditions were difficult today, especially for Loeb, the Frenchman who opened the special stages and had to face the mud, clearing the track 6 times today. With the C4, Loeb/Elena also encountered some problems in the very last night stage, where with the fog and faulty fog lights, the Frenchman lost more than 30 seconds to Hirvonen. The latter also claimed to have some visibility problems:

“We couldn’t see anything earlier,” he commented.

« Even on some straights I couldn’t see much, but I stayed on track and it’s good that we have this gap now… »

Gronholm, in second position, can still hope to win the title, but the hope wanes from stage to stage while, conversely, Loeb is reassured, seeing his opponents encounter several problems and lose a lot of time.

He would indeed need to lose 4 minutes to fall out of the top 5, synonymous with a world title, and despite his problems, he prefers to ensure:

« We had big problems with the headlights. I turned off the ramp to see in the fog, I even drove for a while without the low beams in the middle of the night! We lost a lot of time, but the important thing is to be in the race. »

Petter Solberg is fourth, after Jari-Matti Latvala lost more than 17 minutes due to a windshield wiper problem and consequently vision issues.

Dani Sordo, Loeb’s teammate at Citroën, is in 5th place, one less opponent for the Frenchman in case of trouble. Matthew Wilson is 6th, ahead of Atkinson in the second Subaru Impreza and Manfred Stohl.

Sébastien Lindholm, who is navigating the British stages to test the new Suzuki SX4 WRC, is positioned in 16th place despite having experienced some engine problems.

Stage 1 – Rally Great Britain – The Top 10