Loeb takes early lead in Germany

Kronos Citroen have taken a clean sweep of the four stages on the damp opening loop, with Loeb winning stages one and three, and Sordo fastest in SS2 and SS4.

But while Sordo's margins over the competition were relatively slight, Loeb's pace in SS1 and SS3 left the rest trailing.

That leaves Loeb 20.1 seconds ahead of Sordo, who is driving a 2006-specification Citroen for the first time, as they head for lunchtime service.

Petter Solberg made the start despite his heavy crash in yesterday's shakedown. He began the morning well with second place after SS1, but has since slipped back to fourth, behind Marcus Gronholm, who went off "about four times" during the opening stage.

Manfred Stohl's OMV Peugeot and Toni Gardemeister's 2002-vintage Citroen complete the top six.

Leading positions after SS4:

Pos  Driver        Make         Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen   40:23.8
 2.  Sordo         Citroen    + 20.1
 3.  Gronholm      Ford       + 35.8
 4.  P Solberg     Subaru     + 40.1
 5.  Stohl         Peugeot    + 51.1
 6.  Gardemeister  Citroen    + 52.1
 7.  Aigner        Skoda      + 59.4
 8.  Duval         Skoda    + 1:00.2
 9.  Atkinson      Subaru   + 1:23.8
10.  Kopecky       Skoda    + 1:24.4
11.  Sarrazin      Subaru   + 1:29.3
12.  Pons          Citroen  + 1:39.1
13.  Tsjoen        Ford     + 1:41.2
14.  Hirvonen      Ford     + 2:04.5
15.  Ekstrom       Skoda    + 2:15.8
16.  Kahle         Skoda    + 2:21.7
17.  Poulsen       Toyota   + 2:33.2
18.  MacHale       Ford     + 2:50.4
19.  Wevers        Toyota   + 3:28.8
20.  Casier        Renault  + 4:19.6