Duval stuns field to top leaderboard

BELGIUM’S Francois Duval stunned the rest of the field as he surged to the top of the leaderboard on day one of the Rally Germany.

Duval, a former Ford and factory Citroen driver with one WRC victory to his name, is making his comeback in the sport this weekend behind the wheel of the OMV Kronos Citroen Xsara.

His impressive performance was aided to a certain degree by an error by reigning three-time champion Sebastien Loeb, who selected the wrong tyres for the afternoon’s stages, in doing so surrendering the lead to Duval by 1.3 seconds.