Hockenheim World Rallycross: Sebastien Loeb dominates day one

Peugeot driver Loeb's time in his first qualifying heat was 1.5 seconds up on the previous best set by PSRX Volkswagen driver Johan Kristoffersson - a time Kristoffersson had achieved despite touching a wall in his race.

Loeb and Kristoffersson then lined up together in Q2, where Loeb was never headed.

Both took their jokers on the final lap, and Timmy Hansen was able to get ahead of Kristoffersson as they rejoined and secure third place in the overnight rankings.

All three Peugeot-Hansen 208s are in the top four after Friday, with reigning European champion Kevin Hansen fourth thanks to third in Q1 and fifth in Q2.

While Loeb topped the order, World RX's other WRC champion Petter Solberg had a difficult brace of qualifying races and is currently only 14th.

Solberg lost time stuck at the back of the pack in Q1 and followed privateer Guerlain Chicherit into a first lap joker, before catching eventual race winner Timo Scheider by the finish to recover eighth fastest time.

At the start of the penultimate race in Q2, Solberg's VW Polo appeared to slow momentarily in Turn 1 and was collected mid-corner by compatriot Andreas Bakkerud's Ford Focus. Both limped to the finish.

Championship leader Mattias Ekstrom lost time in traffic in Q1 after a slow start.

He finished second to Timur Timerzyanov in his Q2 race but was eighth fastest and is ninth overall, while Timerzyanov had a good day and is fifth in his STARD-run Ford Fiesta.

After Q2, Ekstrom immediately swapped race suits to begin his DTM weekend with the series' first practice session of 2017.

His fellow double-DTM champion Schieder has no such concerns since his retirement from the touring car series and is sixth after the first day, ahead of Ken Block.

Watch Sunday's World RX action from Germany live on Sunday in the UK from 09:00 on Motorsport.tv, channel 447 on Sky and 545 on Virgin Media