 Loeb heads the driver standings |
A late surge from world champion Sebastien Loeb gave him the lead after day one of the Rally Sardinia. The Citroen C4 driver went ahead after early pace-setters Jari-Matti Latvala and Marcus Gronholm hit technical trouble in the afternoon.
Gronholm limped through the last stage of the day with a broken damper, which let Loeb open up a 22.4-second lead.
Finland's Mikko Hirvonen recovered from a poor morning to end the day in third place, 29.1 seconds adrift of Loeb.
Gronholm was 15 seconds up on Loeb until the fourth stage, when he was hit by suspension problems.
That cost him 12 seconds on stage four and a further 25 seconds on the fifth and final stage of the day.
Ford driver Latvala, 21, was superb in the first three stages, even leading at one point, before broken suspension ruled him out of the rally altogether.
Loeb began poorly and was only fifth fastest on the opening stage, before improving steadily throughout the day.
Rally Sardinia standings after day one:
1 S Loeb (Fr) Citroen 1hr:42:10.0
2 M Groenholm (Fin) Ford +00:22.4
3 M Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 00:29.1
4 H Solberg (Nor) Ford 00:32.9
5 D Sordo (Spn) Citroen 01:18.3
6 P Solberg (Nor) Subaru 01:21.0
7 T Gardemeister (Fin) Mitsubishi 02:04.2
8 M Stohl (Aut) Citroen 02:35.8
9 M Wilson (GB) Ford 03:34.9
10 G MacHale (Irl) Ford 04:38.3
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