Motorsport: Loeb endures anxious wait

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb faces an anxious and lengthy wait before discovering if his likely maiden world championship victory in today’s Monte Carlo Rally is confirmed.

The 27-year-old is racing under appeal after he was given a two-minute time penalty this morning for an illegal change of tyres on his Citroen.

Loeb currently has a comfortable lead of 44.6 seconds over Finland’s Tommi Makinen, bidding to become the first man to win the famous event four years in a row, with just two stages left.

But any victory would depend on the outcome of the world governing body, FIA’s, Court of Appeal, comprising of five lawyers from independent countries, though the hearing could take several weeks to organise.

Peugeot boss Corrado Provera said: ‘‘This is simply called a screw-up with a capital S. It can happen to anybody. There was no intention to cheat from Citroen, but on the other hand there are rules.’’

Loeb, in only his second outing in a world rally car, saw his overnight lead over Makinen cut to just 18.6secs on the opening stage when he suffered an engine problem.

But Loeb responded in the second of today’s final four stages in the French Alps to post the quickest time and re-open his advantage over his Subaru rival who is also aiming for an all-time record of 24 career wins.

‘‘I had a problem with the engine in the uphill portion,’’ said Loeb, last year’s world junior champion.

‘‘The engine stopped, but after fiddling with the wiring, we succeeded in restarting, losing 15 to 20 seconds.’’

Spain’s Carlos Sainz is over two minutes 17secs adrift in third place for Ford with Marcus Gronholm 23secs further behind in fourth for Peugeot.

Colin McRae, who dropped from third to fifth last night after an engine problem on the final stage, is still fifth just over 14secs behind Gronholm, while world champion Richard Burns looks set to miss out on a points debut with Peugeot.

Burns has dropped from seventh to eighth today, overtaken by team-mate Gilles Panizzi. Alister McRae is 14th for Mitsubishi.

Leading positions after special stage 12 of 15:

1 S Loeb (Fra) Citroen 3hrs 12mins 8.5secs,

2 T Makinen (Fin) Subaru at 18.6secs,

3 C Sainz (Spa) Ford at 2mins 7.5secs,

4 M Gronholm (Fin) Peugeot at 2:21.7,

5 C McRae (Gbr) Ford at 2:49.6,

6 P Solberg (Nor) Subaru at 3:26.5,

7 R Burns (Gbr) Peugeot at 4:18.4,

8 G Panizzi (Fra) Peugeot at 4:22.4,

9 F Delecour (Fra) Mitsubishi at 5:07.5,

10 T Gardemeister (Fin) Skoda at 6:22.7