Loeb Fastest After SS2

Sebastien Loeb has hit back in his bid to win Philips Rally Argentina after going quickest on Friday’s opening stage in his Citroen DS3 WRC.

Loeb dropped time on Thursday night’s superspecial in Villa Carlos Paz and was down in eighth position at the overnight halt.

Running first on the road, Loeb, the winner in Argentina on six previous occasions, took 23m12.5s to complete stage two, despite spinning at the midpoint of the run.

“I had a little spin in the middle of the stage in a hairpin and had to reverse and start again,” said Loeb, who climbs to second overall. “I had a really good drive apart from the problem in the middle.”

Petter Solberg continues to lead overall after dropping 1.9s to Loeb. The factory Ford driver, whose advantage out front is 8.3s, reported a piece of protective safety foam had worked loose and ended up obstructing his foot pedals during the stage.

The Norwegian also said he almost went off the road on two occasions in the slippery conditions.

Mikko Hirvonen was 5.2s slower than team-mate Loeb with the third quickest time. “It was a difficult stage with so much rhythm changes,” said the Finn.

Dani Sordo, who is standing in for the injured Jari-Matti Latvala at Ford, was fourth quickest. He said: “The handling of the car was very good but I don’t take many risks on purpose.”

Evgeny Novikov completed the stage with a damaged right-rear wheel following contact with a rock. However, the Russian said it hadn’t adversely affected the handling of his M-Sport Fiesta.

Team-mate Ott Tanak also hit trouble on the stage after picking up a rear right puncture early in the stage and inflicting damage to his car’s bodywork. The Estonian was nearly three minutes slower than stage winner Loeb.

Nasser Al-Attiyah, who is suffering from neck pains, admitted to making a mistake in his Qatar World Rally Team Citroen when he suffered a spin.

Martin Prokop completed the stage with a left-rear puncture on his Autotek Fiesta, which the Czech picked up 20 kilometres from the finish of the run.

Drivers running at the head of the field had expected to complete the opening kilometres of the stage under the cover of darkness but with a delay of almost one hour caused by the refuel truck breaking down, it was full light by the time the action got underway.

Round five of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia resumes with stage three, the Speedagro Ascochinga/Agua de Oro test, which is the longest of day one at 51.88 kilometres.

Join OSM news service