Thursday wrap: Loeb maintains Monte advantage

Sebastien Loeb has completed day two of Rallye Monte-Carlo with his lead of the FIA World Rally Championship presented by Nokia qualifier firmly intact following another impressive display in his Citroen DS3 WRC.

Loeb has been fastest on five of Thursday’s six demanding stages to open up a lead of 1m37.5s. After snow and ice caused havoc on day one, drier and milder conditions have prevailed on day two although several drivers reported a build up of mud on the stages making the road surface slippery.

“Today was easier than yesterday, more like a normal Tarmac rally but it was still tricky because it was very muddy in places,” said Loeb. “But I was feeling good so I tried to push. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow and with the conditions suiting me today I tried to take everything I can.”

MINI driver Dani Sordo heads Ford’s Petter Solberg in a thrilling battle for second place. Sordo and Solberg have swapped position throughout the day but it’s Spaniard Sordo who will take a slender 3.4s advantage over his Norwegian rival into the third day of the rally.

Mikko Hirvonen is fourth in the second factory Citroen with Evgeny Novikov closing up in his M-Sport Fiesta. The Russian is 6.0s behind the Finn after a measured performance.

Volkswagen Motorsport’s Sebastien Ogier started Thursday’s final stage in an impressive sixth overall in his Super 2000-specification Skoda Fabia only to suffer a high-speed crash approximately five kilometres from the stage finish, thankfully without injury to neither he nor co-driver Julien Ingrassia.

French legend Francois Delecour is sixth overall with MINI’s Pierre Campana demoting Ott Tanak into eighth after the Estonian’s Fiesta stalled at the start of stage 10. Super 2000 World Rally Championship leader PG Andersson is ninth for Proton with Kevin Abbring completing the top 10 in his Volkswagen-run Fabia.

Armindo Araujo completed Thursday’s final stage with a left-rear puncture on his privateer MINI. Nevertheless the double Production Car world champion remains just outside the top 10. Martin Prokop is 12th for the Czech Ford National Team with Matthew Wilson 13th for the Go Fast Energy World Rally Team.

Wilson’s team-mate Henning Solberg is more than one minute behind the Briton after losing time this afternoon when a stone got stuck in his Fiesta’s brake caliper. WRC Academy Cup champion Craig Breen is 15th and second in the SWRC standings. Poland’s Michal Kosciuszko continues to dominate the Production Car World Rally Championship division in his Mitsubishi Lancer.

Friday’s action features three stages, the first of which, St Jean en Royans-Font d’Urle, goes live at 10:02hrs local time. Crews are due to reach the overnight halt on Monaco’s harbour front at 19:59hrs local time.

Standings after SS10: