Loix cruising in Belgium
Freddy Loix remains in charge of the Ypres Rally following Kris Meeke's accident this morning
The Belgian - a five-time winner of the famous event - has maintained his half-minute advantage over Skoda team-mate Jan Kopecky into the halfway point of today's epic 13-stage, four-loop leg.
Loix suffered a small brake problem on SS12, but was confident he could nurse the issue through to service after the Lille Eurometropole superspecial, especially as Kopecky has decided to settle for second place points with main rivals Juho Hanninen and Meeke both out.
Thierry Neuville has also eased his pace in third. The Kronos Peugeot driver gave himself a fright with a slow speed spin on SS10 and is now focused on keeping his gap back to the rest of the field.
The second stage of this loop, Dikkebus, had to be abandoned after the top three had gone through due to spectators having got into dangerous positions.
This morning's six full-length stages will now be repeated, with the rally finishing around sunset this evening.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Freddy Loix Skoda 1h45m43.5s 2. Jan Kopecky Skoda + 28.1s 3. Thierry Neuville Peugeot + 1m38.7s 4. Bernd Casier Skoda + 2m56.5s 5. Andreas Mikkelsen Ford + 3m43.9s 6. Patrick Snijers Peugeot + 4m05.9s 7. Michal Solowow Ford + 4m48.4s 8. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot + 4m52.2s 9. Luca Betti Peugeot + 5m29.4s 10. Alexandre Romain Mitsubishi + 5m58.7s
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