Sebastien Loeb edges away from Jari-Matti Latvala on Rally GB
Sebastien Loeb continues to lead Rally GB, and has pulled his lead over Jari-Matti Latvala back up to 7.3 seconds
Latvala (Ford) had closed to within a second of leader and world champion Loeb's Citroen at the end of Friday.
But Latvala lost several seconds when he overshot a corner on today's opener Hafren and had to reverse. He then trimmed a few tenths from Loeb's advantage on Sweet Lamb, before Loeb went slightly quicker on Myherin.
Stobart Ford driver Mads Ostberg's third place now looks much more comfortable as Petter Solberg had to stop his Citroen on the road section to today's first stage with a broken fuel pipe.
That elevated Ostberg's team-mate Henning Solberg to fourth. He was coming under increasing pressure from the flying Ott Tanak in the DMACK-shod Ford, until the Estonian lost just over two minutes on Myherin when he went off then had to clear a blocked radiator. Prior to that, Tanak had underlined his and DMACK's potential with a spectacular third-quickest time on Hafren, the rally's longest stage.
What could be Kimi Raikkonen's final World Rally Championship appearance came to an end, at least for today, when he spun his Ice 1 Citroen into a Hafren ditch while right on Tanak's tail in seventh.
Kris Meeke has run into more problems this morning too, with his Mini breaking an engine mounting on the first stage of the day and then limping through with various consequent issues. Despite that, he remains sixth, just behind Stobart's Matthew Wilson.
Leading positions after SS14: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 2h00m30.8s 2. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 7.3s 3. Mads Ostberg Stobart Ford + 1m51.0s 4. Henning Solberg Stobart Ford + 4m06.1s 5. Matthew Wilson Stobart Ford + 5m16.6s 6. Kris Meeke Mini + 5m21.8s 7. Dennis Kuipers FERM Ford + 6m14.1s 8. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 6m17.2s 9. Evgeny Novikov Abu Dhabi Ford + 7m13.2s 10. Ken Block Monster Ford + 10m11.1s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Loeb had "no chance" against three-car Audi team in Dakar after Al-Attiyah exit
Loeb's Dakar victory hopes end with mechanical issues on Stage 11
Why Loeb v Ogier duel gave the WRC's new hybrid era the ideal start
WEC Imola: Ferrari remains on top in FP2 as Fuoco beats Porsche
WRC Croatia: Neuville, Evans tied for the lead after eight stages
WIN! A VIP Race Weekend Experience in Monaco
Lauda's 1976 German GP helmet to be auctioned at F1 Miami GP
How Rovanpera showed his class above his WRC rivals in Kenya
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
The new WRC highs Neuville reached to defeat Monte master Ogier
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments