Loeb heads towards a 9th victory in Germany

Several competitors fell during this second stage of the Rally from Germany, but not Sébastien Loeb. Of the day's six special stages, the Alsatian won three and now has a lead of 1'42" over Jari-Matti Latvala. “ This is a significant advance, another very good day and no problems to report, explains Loeb. In the Arena Panzerplatte stage, we didn't have to go fast because anything can happen there. We saw it during the first visit. We finished the second day in the lead, with a good lead. This bodes well before the last day. »

Jari-Matti Latvala therefore occupies second place in the provisional ranking in Germany. The Ford driver had a difficult start to the day before moving up the hierarchy by taking advantage of the problems encountered by his competitors. His teammate, Petter Solberg, was forced to retire after going off the track on SS9. While competing with Sébastien Loeb, the Norwegian broke his right rear wheel when hitting a stone. During the day, Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo, Ott Tänak or Petter van Merksteijn were victims of the Arena Panzerplatte, the longest special stage of the Rally Germany (46,54).

Uncomfortable behind the wheel of the Citroën DS3 WRC on asphalt, Mikko Hirvonen still occupies third place in the general classification, just under 30 seconds behind second place. In fourth position, Mads Ostberg preferred to play it safe rather than attack excessively in his duel against Ott Tänak, who ended up giving up. Chris Atkinson completes the Top 5 for his first rally with a Mini John Cooper Works.

Sébastien Ogier is on track to score his best result of the season at the wheel of his modest Skoda Fabia S2000. The Frenchman, who won in Germany last year with Citroën, occupies sixth place in the provisional ranking ahead of his teammate Andreas Mikkelsen.