Loeb rues time penalty
World champion Sebastien Loeb was left cursing a 10-second penalty which allowed Marcus Gronholm to take a slender lead into the second day of the Swedish Rally.
Loeb was late arriving at a checkpoint after the bonnet on his Citroen flew open, forcing him to stop and secure it again.
That cost him a 10-second penalty – and instead of ending the first day just 0.2secs behind Ford driver Gronholm, the Frenchman trails his world title rival by 10.2secs.
Gronholm, fresh from victory in round one at Monte Carlo, won the first two stages this morning but was pegged back by Loeb on the next four runs.
Loeb blamed an extra set of headlights, which he needed to remove after stage two, for the mishap.
He said: “We took the lamp hood off at the end of the first stage and we did not close the bonnet completely. It came up on the road section, and we had to stop and close it.”
The rally has turned into a two-way battle for honours after last year’s winner Petter Solberg suffered a torrid day.
The rear driveshaft on his Subaru broke this morning, costing him several minutes – before a two minutes 10secs penalty for arriving late at a checkpoint further hampered his time.
The Norwegian is nearly six minutes behind Gronholm in 18th place but has vowed to push as hard as he can to reach the top eight.
He said: “I feel very disappointed, but there isn’t much we can do about it. We were on a long straight, in sixth gear when the left-rear driveshaft just broke. There was no warning.
“I’m not sure what we can do now, but I’ve nothing to lose – so I’ll do my best and see where it gets me.”
Gianluigi Galli holds the final podium place in his privateer Mitsubishi, after surging up the leaderboard today, but the Italian is nearly a minute off the pace. Daniel Carlsson’s Peugeot is fourth.
Former DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom is again enjoying his annual switch to rallying. The touring car ace lies fifth in his Red Bull Skoda after a fruitful morning.
Manfred Stohl, in an OMV Peugeot, is running sixth, with team-mate Henning Solberg seventh and Kristian Sohlberg eighth in a Subaru.
English youngster Matthew Wilson is 16th after three stages in his Stobart Ford – while in the junior class, Guy Wilks is fifth for Suzuki.
