Loix falls back after puncture

The war of attrition in Flanders has continued with yet another dramatic twist, as Freddy Loix has all but lost his chance of a record-breaking sixth win in Ypres after picking up a puncture on SS13

Jun 20, 2009, 6:23 PM

Loix, the pre-event favourite, had just surrendered the lead to sit 0.8 seconds behind Kris Meeke going in to the Dikkebus stage.

As he pushed to try and reclaim the advantage, Loix suffered a puncture on the treacherous verge and dropped to fourth place behind the works Skoda pair of Jan Kopecky and Juho Hanninen.

Recovering to set the fastest time in stage 14, Loix was able to take little time out of Meeke, who dropped only 0.5s to him on the 10.2km Kemmelberg stage and remains 1m52.8s clear of his title rival.

Meeke, the championship leader by two points from Loix, holds a 23.8s advantage over Kopecky in second place.

His Belgian rival is closing fast on Hanninen's third place going in to the final two stages. 2006 Ypres winner Giandomenico Basso holds fifth place for Abarth.