Lionel Baud leader of Haut-Var, Sébastien Loeb begins his comeback

Lionel Baud leads the Rallye du Haut-Var after the first stage. First leader, Sébastien Loeb had to deal with a mechanical problem this morning which caused him to lose time. The Alsatian returned to the foot of the podium.

Published on 29/06/2019 à 19:58

⁰ View comments)

Lionel Baud leader of Haut-Var, Sébastien Loeb begins his comeback

The first step of Rally du Haut-Var, third round of the French Terrestrial Rally Championship, sees the domination of Lionel Baud (Citroën DS3 WRC) at the end of the first stage this Saturday.

The leader, author of the scratch in SS2, took advantage of Sébastien's setbacks Loeb (Hyundai i20 R5), meilleur temps dans l’ES1, mais victime d’une casse de rotule dans le deuxième chrono avec la perte consécutive de plus d’une minute et dix secondes.

From then on Lionel Baud will not let go of the controls of the event while the fight behind for the places of honor pits Thibault Durbec (Citroën DS3 WRC), second at 10″6 this evening despite a door problem and a puncture in SS2 and Matthieu Margaillan (Skoda Fabia R5), 3rd at 15″8 and also victim of a puncture in SS5.

A special where Sébastien Loeb also suffered a puncture, which did not prevent the nine-time world rally champion from setting all the best times of the day, except that of SS2 and returning to 4th position at the end of this first stage at 19″6 Baud

The Alsatian therefore remains largely in contention for the final victory. The top 5 is completed by the Citroën C3 R5 of Thomas Baudoin.

Rallye du Haut-Var ranking after Stage 1:

1.Baud/Baud (DS 3 WRC) in 40m43s9

2.Durbec/Renucci (DS 3 WRC) + 10s6

3.Margaillan/Margaillan (Skoda Fabia R5) + 15s8

4.Loeb/Godey (Hyundai i20 R5) + 19s6

5.Baudoin/Letourneau (Citroën C3 R5) + 49s8