WRC: Sebastien Loeb five stages away from eighth Rally Deutschland victory
Sebastien Loeb is leading Rally Deutschland by 35.7 seconds in front of his Citroen teammate Dani Sordo after day 2 of the popular rally.
Loeb won three out of eight stages on Saturday. Dani Sordo was able to come back on his teammate only to lose sight of him again after the tenth stage, the Panzerplatte run. This stage was also an important one for Sebastien Ogier who took the third place in front of Jari-Matti Latvala. Latvala lost his Focus on the first Panzerplatte stage, falling to fourth place. His teammate Mikko Hirvonen suffered from transmission failure on Saturday. He might restart under SuperRally regulations tomorrow. He is ninth in the overall standing tonight. François Duval moved into fifth position after Hirvonen's misfortune, despite problems of his own on board of his Focus. He lost turbo pressure by the end of stage 13 and reported high water temperature in the car. But things got a lot worse for Duval when he rolled seven kilometres from the end of stage 14 after he took a right-hander too quickly. The accident promoted Petter Solberg to fifth. Solberg's Citroen C4 suffered from a cut right-hander on stage 12 and bent his car's steering in the process. His mechanics work allowed him a victory in the last stage of the day, the second Panzerplatte run. He had also won stage 11. Former Formula 1 champion Kimi Räikkönen is sixth overnight despite a broken right-rear anti-roll bar link he had to take care of in stage 10. Standings after the second day of Rally Deutschland: 1. Sebastien Loeb 3:05:21.6 2. Dani Sordo +35.7 sec. 3. Sebastien Ogier +1:31.4 4. Jari-Matta Latvala +16.6 5. Petter Solberg +2:52.3 6. Kimi Räikkönen +2:08.4 Etc. |
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