Loeb fastest on opening superspecial
Sebastien Loeb will lead into the first fully-fledged stages of the Rally Argentina after winning tonight's Cordoba stadium superspecial
The world champion - who is chasing a fifth consecutive Argentina victory this weekend - beat his title rival Mikko Hirvonen by a second on the short stage.
"It was okay, very slippery, very difficult and very easy to make a mistake on this stage," said Loeb. "I'm happy - no problems, we've got the best time and it's perfect."
Loeb's Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo completed the top three, just a tenth of a second down on Hirvonen's Ford.
Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) was delighted to beat his brother Henning (Stobart Ford) by 0.6 seconds on their side-by-side run. The Norwegian siblings took fourth and fifth, ahead of Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, who is driving cautiously following his terrifying accident in Portugal.
"It might take me some time to get back in the right rhythm, but that's why we're here - to get it back," said Latvala.
Leading positions after SS1:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 2m23.6s 2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1.0s 3. Dani Sordo Citroen + 1.1s 4. Petter Solberg Citroen + 1.9s 5. Henning Solberg Citroen + 2.5s 6. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 2.7s 7. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 4.0s 8. Nasser Al-Attiyah Subaru + 4.2s 9. Matthew Wilson Ford + 5.0s 10. Raul Martinez Subaru + 6.3s
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