At the end of the opening day of competition in the Rally of Great Britain, Sébastien Loeb heads the field by a narrow margin. The Frenchman is just 5.3 seconds ahead of Mikko Hirvonen as the duo battle for the 2009 world title. Third position is held by former World Champion Petter Solberg.
The Rally of Great Britain is the final round of the 2009 series and the showdown is between Hirvonen and Loeb. The Finn is only one point ahead in the Championship standings; he is fighting for his maiden title, while Loeb is seeking an unprecedented sixth. Today’s route took the crews to the forests in mid-Wales for two loops of three identical stages covering 130.30 competitive kilometres. Rain during the week made for tricky conditions and this morning fog added to the challenge.
Loeb took the advantage from the outset, winning the opening three stages to hold an 8.9 second lead by the mid-day service. This afternoon, Hirvonen powered back, winning two of the stages to close the gap to 5.3 seconds overnight. Both ran without problems during the day.
Behind them, Petter Solberg and Dani Sordo have been battling for third position. The duo traded position throughout the day until Solberg maintained his advantage in the final stage to head the Spaniard by just 1.1 seconds. Fifth place Sébastien Ogier has not been entirely happy with his pace, but the Frenchman is still seeking a podium position to round off the season. He is however nearly two minutes adrift of Sordo after a puncture in the final stage. Henning Solberg has been troubled by problems with the spark plugs today and is only 8.8 seconds adrift in sixth. Britain’s Matthew Wilson has been struggling for traction. He and Conrad Rautenbach are seventh and eighth respectively. Jari-Matti Latvala got off to a disappointing start when he broke the front left drive-shaft in the first stage. He is now nearly six minutes behind the lead.
Rally of Great Britain - Results after Day 1
1 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 1 hr 15 min 22.1s2 Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 1 hr 15 min 27.4s
3 Petter Solberg/Phil Mills Citroën C4 WRC 1 hr 16 min 02.6s4 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 1 hr 16 min 03.7s5 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia Citroën C4 WRC 1 hr 18 min 03.4s6 Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud 1 hr 18 min 12.2s 1 hr 18 min 45.1s7 Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin Ford Focus RS WRC 1 hr 20 min 16.7s 8 Conrad Rautenbach/Daniel Barritt Ford Focus RS WRC
