Monte-Carlo / Mid-day: Loeb untouchable

And quietly, Sébastien Loeb continues on its merry way. Since he got rid of Jari-Matti Latvala, who rolled yesterday, the Alsatian is comfortably installed at the head of the opening round of the WRC 2012. But in order to make his adversaries understand that there was no point in trying to pursue him, the eight-time world champion won the three stages of the morning without a shot, bringing his lead to 1?23 in the General classification. “This stage was dry, he declared upon the arrival of SS7. We made the best choice of tires for this loop. No problems to report ».

A second place for which Dani Sordo and Petter Solberg are fighting for seconds. If the Spaniard had the advantage at the start of SS5 this morning, the Norwegian rushed to the front, before the Mini driver recovered his property in SS6 before losing it again in the ES7. This is where the main attraction of this Monte-Carlo is now located. More lively than yesterday, Mikko Hirvonen points the nose of his Citroën DS3 WRC in fourth place overall. However, it will be very difficult for him to get the podium, since he is 1 behind Sordo.

And it is in fifth place in the general classification that we find the other attraction of this Monte-Carlo, which is named Sébastien Ogier. With a “simple” Skoda Fabia S2000, the Gapençais gets involved in the fight with the WRC. In the SS7, although it was 21,66 km long, he only gave Loeb 8??4! Evgenly Novikov, François Delecour, Pierre Campana, Ött Thank you and Per-Gunnar Andersson complete the provisional Top 10.

The cars are currently heading to the Valence closed park for the mid-day break. Meet at 14:50 p.m. for SS8, similar to this morning's SS5, and which will see the competitors join Lalouvsec from Labatie d'Andaure.

Ddiscover in your AUTO magazinehebdo, currently on newsstands or available here, our 2012-page 38 WRC Guide.