Loeb takes early control

World champion Sebastien Loeb continued to push for his sixth victory of the season after finishing day one of the Rally Catalunya in the lead.

The Citroen driver is two seconds clear of second-placed Markko Martin after winning two stages on the opening day of the Spanish event.

Ford’s Martin won the final stage and went up to second after team-mate Francois Duval retired.

Duval made an impressive start to the rally, winning the first stage as well as stages three and four, but any hopes of taking a maiden world championship victory were dashed after he damaged the car on stage six and was forced out.

“I’m not sure whether I cut a corner too much or not enough, but I hit a rock which broke the front left suspension,” the 23-year-old Belgian said.

“I stopped briefly and then continued to the end of the stage, losing about 90 seconds.

“We tried to make repairs so that we could drive back to the service park but there was nothing we could do and we had to retire.”

Meanwhile, Martin admitted he had been lucky to get through the final stage after picking up some tyre damage.

“I was lucky because about seven kilometres from the end of the last stage I cut a corner and damaged the front left tyre.

“I heard a big bang and still don’t know what I hit, although I expect it was a rock,” the Estonian said.

Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm ended the day third in the standings.

The Finn finished in the top four in all six stages on day one and is just over 27 seconds behind Loeb.

Carlos Sainz ended just behind Gronholm in fourth, 30 seconds ahead of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.

“It’s certainly been a tough day,” Solberg said.

“Mechanically things have been 100% and the car has felt fine, but even though our tyre choices have been good, the stage conditions change so much from one part to the next that it’s difficult to get into a consistent driving rhythm.

“I hope we can get some more consistent conditions.”

Britain’s Guy Wilks finished the day seventh overall in the junior championship.

Wilks currently leads the junior standings, three points ahead of Suzuki team-mate Per-Gunnar Andersson, and is driving for the title in the final round of the JWRC.

Andersson finished the day second behind another Suzuki driver, Mirco Baldacci.