SS7: Loeb blitzes opening stage in Jordan

Sebastien Loeb has gone fastest through the opening stage of the Jordan Rally.

The Citroen Total World Rally Team driver defied expectations with a blisteringly quick time of 7m1.0s, 1.8 seconds faster than team-mate Sebastien Ogier and 10.4 seconds faster than joint championship leader Mikko Hirvonen. The loose surface conditions had been expected to be a significant hindrance to Hirvonen, Loeb and Ogier, the drivers running first on the road.

“That was a great stage time compared with Mikko,” said Loeb. “We have to push hard today to not lose too much time to the others.”

“It’s a good start,” said Ogier. “This stage is so fast. I’m happy and there were no problems for me, but I’ll try to go quicker next time.”

Jari-Matti Latvala, the quickest of the Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers on 7m06.7s, underlined how fast Loeb had been pushing. “I can’t understand,” he said. “I thought I was trying hard but he’s so quick. I saw some lines where Sebastien has been taking some risks.”

Three seconds further adrift and somewhat disappointed, Petter Solberg felt he only had himself to blame for only being fourth fastest: “I didn’t get the rhythm. It wasn’t a good stage for me and it’s my fault. But I was trying not to go crazy on the first stage of the day.”

The privateer Citroen driver had outpaced Loeb during yesterday’s shakedown.

Joint championship leader Hirvonen was always expected to be at a disadvantage through running first on the road. Nevertheless he was disappointed with his time, claiming that some of the spectator fencing around the stage had been moved, throwing off his memory of the route.

“I was confused in a few places,” he said. “There were a few places where things were different from the recce but apart from that it was okay.”

Kimi Raikkonen was sixth quickest in the Ice 1 Racing Citroen DS3 WRC, despite a half-spin which he believed cost him a second. Henning Solberg was pleased with seventh in his Fiesta WRC: “There’s lots of dust in the air so it’s very difficult to see the road but I’m very happy with how we did there.”

The Stobart Ford Fiesta WRCs of Matthew Wilson and Mads Ostberg were eighth and ninth, 1.5 seconds apart.

“We’re just learning more about the tyre,” said Wilson. “The shakedown road was very different from this so we didn’t get a feeling for how much you can lean on it. I can see from some of the cuts that some people were being more ambitious but we’re going to concentrate on learning.”

“It was really difficult,” said a disappointed Ostberg. “I was very careful. The grip was quite high but I chickened out a lot. I was so angry with myself. The car is good to drive but I just did a bad job.”

Standings after SS7: