Stage 1 – Citroen dominates in the rain… Loeb at the last minute

It is Sébastien Loeb who is leading in this first stage. The Frenchman has regained the advantage over his teammate, Dani Sordo, on home ground, in special stage 6, the very last one of the program for this first day. The two Citroens have been effective and dominate the Ford Focus by more than 50 seconds.

In the first five stages, the rally proved to be extremely close with five different winners: Gronholm, Loeb, Duval, Sordo, and finally Hirvonen… but it’s Loeb who made the difference in the sixth stage, taking the lead under very bad conditions. It’s raining on most of the stages, making the roads slippery and the turns dangerous.

It is particularly in special stage 4 that five drivers will crash at the same place, including Manfred Stohl. The Austrian even rolls over and will not be able to continue. He abandons the race on the first day.

Upon arriving at the stop point of the last stage, Marcus Grönholm is livid: “I hate asphalt rallies,” the Finn comments hastily. A poor tire choice sets him back nearly a minute behind Sébastien Loeb after the first day.

Sébastien Loeb’s face is quite different: « We gave it our all! We managed to keep the tires warm despite the rain. Everything worked perfectly, but we had to fight. »

The Alsatian retakes the lead of the rally ahead of his teammate Dani Sordo (Citroën), who also recorded the second best time on this SS6: I played it safe because this stage is very difficult in the rain.

Like Grönholm, Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) got it all wrong: « Wrong settings, wrong tires! »

Equipped with hard tires, François Duval (Citroën OMV) could not keep up with the pace of the C4 WRC. The Belgian clocked the fifth fastest time after this day but no longer sees himself on the podium: « It would be possible, but not with this car! »

Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Stobart) and Chris Atkinson (Subaru) complete the top 8 of this overall ranking.

See the ranking of the 1st Stage