Sebastien Loeb seized control of the Rally of Great Britain and the world title race with a dominant performance on day two of the season-ending race in Cardiff on Saturday.
The defending champion finished the day with a 30.2 second lead over title rival Mikko Hirvonen of Finland, who led him by a single point going into the weekend, with four special stages scheduled yesterday.
Protecting a 5.3 second lead from day one, Loeb’s advantage was trimmed to 2.9 seconds when Hirvonen won the 35.72km first special stage of the day, but thereafter the Frenchman turned on the style to leave his rival trailing.
PHOTO: EPA
“I’m really happy, it was a very good day — especially on the final two stages in the morning,” Loeb said. “Early in the day I was able to build a good gap to Mikko, although this afternoon he was closer because the roads were muddier. But I’ve had a very good drive, made no mistakes and now here we are, with a good lead for tomorrow. Everything’s perfect for the moment.”
Hirvonen pledged to fight to the end yesterday.
“Our position now is not what I wanted,” the Finn said. “It’s not been a good day and I still don’t understand how we lost so much time earlier. The amount we lost [2.5 seconds on SS12] I could understand. Tomorrow is the last day of the year and I’ve no option but to go flat-out.”
Hirvonen was 10.2 seconds behind Loeb in stage eight and 11.9 seconds off the Citroen man’s pace in stage nine, allowing the five-time champion to open up a 25 second advantage.
The Ford Focus driver hit back to take stage 10, which was a repeat of the day’s first stage through the Vale of Neath forest, but Loeb reasserted himself in stages 11 and 12 to establish a handsome 30.2 second lead going into the final day.
Loeb’s Spanish teammate Dani Sordo followed the Frenchman’s lead to climb above Petter Solberg into third place and had opened up a 24 second lead over the Norwegian by the end of the final stage.
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