Loeb leads in Norway

Sebastien Loeb has a 15-second lead going into the final day of Rally Norway after pulling away from Finnish rival Mikko Hirvonen during today’s seven stages.

The reigning world champion began the day with a slim 2.6 second edge but got straight to work as he set the fastest time on the opening stage – a 24-kilometre run through the snowy mountains near Hamar.

Hirvonen lost time last night to surrender first place and was hoping Loeb would suffer from clearing the course but it was not the case as he finished seven-tenths of a second in front of his rival, and revelled in the conditions.

“I was flat out all the time, and the split times with Mikko were the same,” he said.

“The conditions are very, very nice and I made no mistakes. It’s great fun to drive like that. On this stage the surface is completely ice. There is no difference for Mikko, I think.”

With Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala falling another 14 seconds behind in third place, the focus remained on Loeb and Hirvonen all afternoon as the only two in the fight up front.

After the short Lillehammer stage, Loeb began to put clear air between himself and Hirvonen on the 27-kilometre Ringsaker stage as he moved 9.4 seconds clear overall.

Further down the field, Per-Gunnar Andersson dropped out before stage 13 with a gearbox problem on his Skoda, while Frenchman Sebastian Ogier suffered a two-minute penalty as an engine problem made him late to a control point.

While Loeb had enjoyed the first run through the mountains in the morning, the return run was not so good in the afternoon as the metal spikes had cut up the course badly.

Loeb recorded a time 34 seconds slower than his previous attempt, but that was still good enough to extend his lead a little further with Hirvonen fourth-quickest through the stage, 1.4 seconds behind Loeb.

“It’s still game on, but we’re both pushing so hard it’s easy to make mistakes,” Hirvonen said at the end of the stage.

“There were a couple of times in there where we touched the banks, but I don’t think I could have gone any faster. That’s the absolute limit. The fight is not over yet.”

Latvala, second-fastest on the second run through the mountains, then picked up back-to-back stage wins as the drivers returned to Ringsaker, cutting the gap to Hirvonen to 28.2 seconds before the day ended.

Loeb and Hirvonen were second and third-fastest on the second run as Loeb edged further ahead for a satisfactory end to the day.

“It’s been a good day,” said Loeb.

“Maybe on that (run) I lost one or two seconds in the last few kilometres – I made a few mistakes when the grip changed and that put me wide and into a ditch a bit. But it’s okay.”

Hirvonen, however, promised to keep up the fight on the final day tomorrow.

“We found a lot of snow near the midpoint,” he said. “That’s a shame but the fight is not over, there is still a long way to go tomorrow.”