WRC – Sébastien Loeb increases his lead

On the three stages contested this morning, Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) did not make the slightest mistake and even increased his lead over his direct rival Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford). The leader of Rally from France-Alsace signed two new stage wins, increasing his lead to 30 seconds following an error by the Finn who suffered a slight exit from the road. The Ford driver saved his honor by taking the best time in SS11 of Pays de la Haute Bruche. Although Mikko Hirvonen also took advantage of this error to get closer to second place, the second Citroën driver was still 19 seconds behind second place upon returning to the service park.

Fourth place is hotly contested between several drivers. Petter Solberg (Ford) started the stage with a minimal delay of seven tenths on the provisional podium, but the 2203 world champion ended his race in an electric pole in the first special of the day (video). Dani Sordo (Mini) thus recovered this position before being taken back by Thierry Neuville (Citroën) for three tenths. However, the Belgian should lose two positions by receiving a 20-second penalty for clocking in two minutes late. Mads Ostberg (Ford) is indeed still fighting with the Spaniard and the Belgian since he follows the Mini JCW WRC less than two seconds late.

Ott Tänak (Ford) took advantage like the others of Petter Solberg's exit from the road to gain a position, the Estonian now occupying seventh place ahead of Evgeny Novikov (Ford), Chris Atkinson (Mini) and Martin Prokop (Ford) who was finally able to fix his engine problems. Sébastien Ogier (Skoda) remains at the gates of the top ten with less than six seconds ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen.

The organizers of the Rallye de France-Alsace have decided to cancel the last special of the morning, the 10,7km of Klevener, due to too many spectators on the roads. This decision follows an accident which occurred in the Pays d’Ormont special. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Citroën) went off the road at the 8th kilometer, injuring two spectators in the leg and arm, and thus causing the cancellation of the special while the S-WRC crews had not yet passed. Sébastien Chardonnet (Citroën) lost almost seven minutes while providing assistance and should recover the lost time, but the Frenchman lost another minute in the following special by making an error.

The crews will set off again for the second pass of the special stages on the program from 14:38 p.m. 96,4km timed remain on the program for this stage.