Loeb delighted with start

Citroen's Sebastien Loeb admits he could not have asked for more from his first morning of this weekend's Wales Rally GB after pulling out a substantial lead on his nearest rivals

Sep 17, 2004, 2:41 PM

Loeb, who leads the WRC points standings, had a perfect start to his British campaign to finish the first four stages of the day 14.8s ahead of second-placed driver Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot). The Frenchman took advantage of running first on the rally, which, despite being gravel, worked to his favour as the more cars that ran through the road the more muddier it got.

"For once I think opening the road was not penalising," Loeb said. "We had a very clean run - we even pushed a bit. I like these stages, but they're difficult due to the changes of grip.

"You can push in the hard sections and be careful in the slippery ones. Everything was perfect. The car has no problems and we will just change the tyres, put in petrol and go again. We will try to continue in this rhythm and see what we can do."

There are just two tests left to run on the first leg, two trips through the 32.58km Rheola stage.