SS7B Molini 1: First for Loeb

The young Frenchman kept his head, while Citroen team mates Jesus Puras and Philippe Bugalski lost theirs (see separate story), to complete the day's longest stage ahead of new overall leader Gilles Panizzi in the Peugeot. This is the first WRC outing for Loeb in the Xsara and to grab a stage win is an impressive accomplishment. And to top it all he's now lying in second overall, albeit 32 seconds behind Panizzi.

Marcus Gronholm was another casualty on SS7B, which meant the top of the timesheets had wasn't an all-Citroen/Peugeot affair. Francois Delecour grabbed Ford's best stage result of the rally with his third fastest time. And Petter Solberg got a similar result for Subaru - although the team won't be rejoicing as the Norwegian is now the only Subaru in with a shout of scoring points in Italy, following Markko Martin's crash on Molini.

Didier Auriol was fifth fastest on SS7B and the Frenchman moves to third overall on the leaderboard.

Ford pair Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae were sixth and seventh respectively. Sainz is fifth overall and if he can stay in that position, he'll leapfrog Richard Burns in the championship standings.

Renato Travaglia and Simone Jean-Joseph were eighth and ninth on Molini and Tommi Makkinen, virtually now using Sanremo as an extended test run for the his new Mitsubishi Lancer was 10th. He's lying 2m42.6s behind the leader and about 1m40s from getting into the points.

For SS7B Molini 1 results, click here.

For full live timings table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.