Monday 20 June 2011

Loeb takes over lead in Athens


Loeb takes over lead in Athens
Sebastien Loeb inherited the lead on the penultimate day of the Acropolis Rally after Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier lost time on Saturday evening's final stage.
Loeb trailed Ogier by 15 seconds heading into the 17-kilometre night stage that concluded Saturday's second leg but emerged with a lead of two seconds as his fellow Frenchman appeared to slow to avoid running first on the dusty roads on Sunday.
Ogier refused to admit he had played the tactical card after the stage, however, saying: "It was a very difficult stage.
"I went flat all the time and it was difficult to drive."
Loeb refused to be drawn on what running first on the road on Sunday would do for his victory hopes with the top four covered by just 22.4 seconds.
"We will see what will happen," said Loeb.
"We will continue to push and try and do our best."
Overnight leader Petter Solberg began the day with a 51.6secs advantage over the chasing pack but gave an able demonstration of the perils of running first on the road as that turned into a 20.9secs deficit to Loeb at the end of Saturday.
Solberg's hopes were not helped by a final-stage time some 13secs slower than Loeb, and he said: "We had a big problem in the stage, so we lost a lot of time," said the privateer Citroen driver.
"We got a little bit lost in the pace notes. That's how it is."
Mikko Hirvonen finished the day in fourth place for Ford, just 1.5secs behind Solberg, and could be the man to watch over Sunday's final five stages.
Hirvonen's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala suffered turbo problems on Saturday morning but hit back to win two stages on his way to 11th place at the end of the day.
Henning Solberg was in fifth place, ahead of Stobart Ford team-mate Matthew Wilson, while Kimi Raikkonen was an impressive seventh in his Ice 1 Racing Citroen.

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