Loeb dominates field in Cyprus

Championship leader Sebastien Loeb continued his domination of the Cyprus Rally after he won the first four of the six stages on leg two today to stretch his advantage.

The Citroen driver goes into the third and final day tomorrow with a lead of three minutes and 14 seconds over the Citroen of Austrian privateer Manfred Stohl.

Norwegian Henning Solberg, in a privately entered Ford, stands third, a further minute and 1.4secs adrift of Loeb.

Markko Martin’s Peugeot completed the day in fourth place, while Toni Gardemeister (Ford) was fifth, with the Czech Republic’s Roman Kresta (Ford) in sixth.

Belgian Francois Duval’s rally came to an explosive end on the 11th stage, his Citroen crashing and bursting into flames.

Subaru driver Petter Solberg did not return this morning after missing yesterday’s final stage due to electrical problems.

The Norwegian had hoped to resume under the restart rules with a five-minute time penalty, but his team decided not to risk further engine damage ahead of the Rally Turkey.

Loeb was just 0.3secs quicker than Martin across the day-opening stage seven.

The Frenchman then beat Finn Gardemeister across the second test of the day by 3.9secs, with Duval third fastest but over nine seconds down on his team-mate’s time.

That result saw Gardemeister leap above Mitsubishi’s Harri Rovanpera into seventh.

On stage nine, Loeb was 0.2secs faster than Gardemeister with Henning Solberg third quickest.

Loeb beat team-mate Duval by just 2.6secs on the 10th stage.

The next was halted early on after Duval hit a tree four kilometres into the test, ending his rally.

The Belgian rolled the car before it caught fire but both Duval and his co-driver Stephane Prevot were unhurt in the incident and nominal times were handed out to those drivers who failed to make it through, including Loeb.

Skoda driver Armin Schwarz’s rally was also ended on the same stage after he left the road, while Antony Warmbold pulled up with oil pressure problems.

Rovanpera retired from the rally on a dramatic 12h stage, the last of the day, after damage to his car’s suspension and a missing front wheel left him stranded.

It was a second incomplete stage in succession after the fiery end to the 11th, and a delay to allow Loeb and Stohl to reach the start – both having been held up by the incident involving Duval – was followed by the crowd spilling onto the course.

Organisers felt they would be unable to clear the course and both Loeb and Stohl received nominal times which kept them in the top two positions.

Gardemeister finished the stage with a puncture, crawling to the finish and losing time but still in the points and still in the rally ahead of tomorrow’s climax.

The second Subaru of Chris Atkinson returned to action after the Australian retired from leg one with a clutch problem and he finished the day more than 25 minutes down on Loeb overall, while Gilles Panizzi – quickest of those cars which completed stage 12 – was a further four minutes adrift.

Of the testing conditions, Loeb told www.wrc.com: “I’m amazed by the pounding the car has taken and it’s still fine. It’s astonishing.

“This is one of the hardest rallies I’ve done in my career because we can only lose it, rather than win it.”

Cheshire’s Natalie Barratt was running 10th in the production class, moving up two places in the course of the day.

She is flying the flag for Britain after Mark Higgins exited yesterday, when his car caught fire.

Barratt is battling for the minor places, however, with leader Brice Tirabassi more than 25 minutes quicker so far and the ninth-placed driver four minutes ahead of her.

Darlington driver Guy Wilks finished the day 34th overall in his Super 1600 class Suzuki, falling away from 27th.

The event does not count towards his junior world championship title push.