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.

BP-Ford’s Marcus Gronholm, championship leader by 13 points from Loeb heading into this weekend, is third, 16 seconds adrift of his title rival.

Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo was forced to retire on stage six having run as high as third early on.