Sordo springs surprise as Loeb keeps grip on crown

WORLD Rally champion Sebastien Loeb had to fend off Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo as he opened his defence of the crown in Monaco.

Frenchman Loeb holds the lead in the Monte Carlo Rally, opening round of the 2007 world championship, but swapped stage wins several times with Sordo after yesterday’s special stages.

Spaniard Sordo took the opening stage of the day, the third of the rally, and Loeb won the next. Sordo and Loeb then won alternate stages from numbers five to eight, the last of the day, as Loeb closed 25.2 seconds ahead.

Ford’s Marcus Gronholm is 50 seconds further back, with Subaru’s New Zealander Chris Atkinson in fourth, over a minute behind the Finn.

Loeb had been expected to struggle as he had not recovered fully from a broken arm suffered in a mountain bike accident last season, but few had predicted Sordo would be his biggest challenger.

However, Loeb admitted he knew Sordo had the talent on hard-surface rallies after the way he performed in Germany last season.

“We knew since Germany that he can be really fast on tarmac. It is very close. It could be a big battle,” said Loeb.

“Everything is perfect at the moment though; we have a good gap with Dani now and we will try to keep it.”

Loeb revealed he was in some discomfort with his arm. “I have a bit of pain, but it’s fatigue rather than anything else,” he said.

Irish driver Gareth MacHale and co- driver Paul Nagle ended the second leg in 12th place after the Dublin/Kerry pairing had a satisfactory outing over the day’s six stages.

MacHale, driving his 2003 specification Ford Focus WRC, made a bright start on yesterday’s opening stage, SS3, S Pierreville. His stage time, 11th in general classification, was only 6.4 seconds behind Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen, who is piloting an 06 specification car.

However, on the next stage the Irish duo dropped time after picking a tyre with a compound that was too soft for the conditions. They also lost time on the final few kilometres of the following stage but responded on the last two stages of the leg to consolidate 12th.

“Overall, the day went well,” said MacHale. “We had a good time on stage three. As for making it into the top 10 — well it’s going to be a difficult task and I suppose being realistic, it will only happen if there are some retirements up ahead.”

MacHale’s overall time at the end of the leg was 2 hours, 4 mins, 46.7 secs. Britain’s Matthew Wilson and Northern Ireland’s Michael Orr lie 12th — one minute and 36.5 seconds behind MacHale/Nagle.

Wexford’s Eamonn Boland is 16th with an overall time of 2 hours, 11 mins, 13 secs.