Loeb takes orders in Spain

Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) took the lead in Rally of Spain in the first passage of the last stage. The eight-time winner of the Catalan event took a bold gamble by opting for hard tires while the competition bet on softs. The nine-time champion WRC scored the scratch in the two stages where the roads were completely dry.

Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) a conservé l’avantage sur Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) qui accuse moins de 4 secondes de retard sur le Finlandais, mais l’ancien leader de l’épreuve se retrouve à plus de 7 secondes de l’Alsacien.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) s’est hissé au 4e rang devant son coéquipier Dani Sordo. Les i20 WRC du Belge et de l’Espagnol ont pris l’avantage sur Elfyn Evans (M-Sport) qui se retrouve à 7 dixièmes de la star nationale du meeting.

Ott Tänak (Toyota) took 7th position against his teammate Esapekka Lappi, but the Estonian will not be able to claim better on a regular basis. Craig Breen (Citroën) and Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) complete the Top 10 ahead of Teemu Suninen (M-Sport).

Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda) retains the lead in WRC 2 but his lead over Jan Kopecky (Skoda) has been reduced to less than 14 seconds. Petter Solberg (Volkswagen) returned to the provisional podium by taking advantage of the delay taken by Nil Solans (Ford) who slipped to 5th place in the category behind Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Ford).

The second pass of the final stage of the Rally of Spain will be contested from 10:50 a.m.