Loeb takes early lead in Corsica

Loeb set a blistering pace in the first stage of the day to take the lead right from the go, despite running first on the road in Corsica. He then held it in SS2 with the second fastest time.

However, Ford rival Marcus Gronholm is less than five seconds behind the Kronos Racing Citroen driver, having won the second stage of the day.

As the preliminary shakedown stage indicated yesterday, the battle for the victory already seems to be between Loeb and Gronholm, with the championship rivals nearly 40 seconds ahead of third position after the first two stages.

In third is the privateer Peugeot 307 of Alex Bengue, continuing to impress after his fourth place finish in Catalunya. Bengue set the fourth and third fastest times in the first two stages of the day respectively to lie in the provisional podium position.

Bengue is six seconds ahead of works Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, who blotted his copybook early on in the rally, by stalling at the start of SS1.

Xavier Pons, who was third fastest through SS1, dropped to fifth through the 27.78km stage of SS2, the pass from Aullene to Arbellara. However, Pons is still very much in contention, resting only 2.2 seconds behind Hirvonen.

Jari-Matti Latvala is currently sixth in the Stobart Motorsport Ford Focus, 9.9 seconds behind Pons but just 1.1 seconds ahead of Nicolas Vouilloz's privateer Peugeot.

If Vouilloz can hold that position for the rest of the event, he will score his best ever WRC finish. His present best is ninth, in the 2004 Wales Rally GB.

Subaru's Petter Solberg yet again had a nightmare start to a rally. Following on from problems early on in Monte Carlo and Sweden, Solberg went off in the first stage.

He lost one and a half minutes after going off road into a bank 5km from the end of the 32.89km SS1 stage.  The accident flattened his exhaust, meaning his Subaru Impreza was losing power through the rest of the pass Ampaza to Col St Eustache.

Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills got out of the car during the road section and used a jack handle to wedge it open. However, it got worse when they lost first gear at the start of SS2, losing a further 30 seconds to the lead.

Several drivers reported slippery, dusty conditions through the stages including Matthew Wilson, who hit the side of a bridge and punctured a tyre.

The rally features the lowest number of stages on the calendar - just 12 in total. The cars go into their service break for lunch, before the final two stages of the day this afternoon.

Pos  Driver      Make       Time
  1. Loeb        Citroen    36:38.7
  2. Gronholm    Ford       + 4.9
  3. Bengue      Peugeot    + 43.9
  4. Hirvonen    Ford       + 49.9
  5. Pons        Citroen    + 52.1
  6. Latvala     Ford       + 1:02.0
  7. Vouilloz    Peugeot    + 1:03.1
  8. Duval       Skoda      + 1:04.4
  9. Sordo       Citroen    + 1:09.8
 10. Stohl       Peugeot    + 1:12.2
 11. Sarrazin    Subaru     + 1:15.8
 12. Atkinson    Subaru     + 1:25.4
 13. Kopecky     Skoda      + 1:26.1
 14. Galli       Peugeot    + 1:34.5
 15. Rovanpera   Skoda      + 1:50.4

All Timing Unofficial