Loeb's bet

Unmissable on the dirt events of WRC, sweeping was once again at the heart of all discussions today. As leader of the Championship, Sébastien Loeb took the lead this morning: “This opening position makes things tricky. With the heat, the stages are very slippery because of the layer of sand covering the dirt roads. You have to be very careful when braking, as the low grip would tend to cause the car to spin. »

At the same time, the Ford drivers have undoubtedly not strained their talent today. At the end of the fifth of the day's six special stages, Loeb was less than 20 seconds behind Jari-Matti Latvala and 5 ahead of Mikko Hirvonen. What was going to happen in SS6? Hirvonen and Latvala were free to leave command to Loeb, who would have opened the road the next day.

To sow doubt in Ford's mind, the five-time World Champion dropped around twenty additional seconds. Starting just behind, Hirvonen thought whatever happened to finish the day behind his rival. Alas, he did not slow down enough and he ended the day three seconds ahead of Loeb!

Starting a little further behind, Latvala seized the opportunity and chose to stay in the lead. It remains to be seen whether the 42??8 will be sufficient. “We made a bet,” concedes Sébastien Loeb. “But I didn't want to open the road tomorrow and the ?gift? is sufficiently attractive. We have done our calculations and we will see on Sunday if we were right? »

Third on the road, Sébastien Loeb will benefit from a perfectly clean road tomorrow. Enough to reduce the gap on Latvala, without however stripping him of command. On a regular basis, victory will undoubtedly be decided on Sunday?