Loeb sped through Sloughan Glen in Co Tyrone on this morning's first stage, opting like everyone else for Pirelli’s winter tyres to cope with rain-lashed roads.
“That was a difficult stage,” said
Loeb. “Okay, on these tyres it wasn’t as bad as the first one yesterday
but I was still aquaplaning a lot. The final section was very slippery
- lots of grip changes and patches that felt like black ice. We went
well at the start but when I saw I was faster than the others I took it
a little easier.”
His Citroen team mate Dani Sordo, who was second overnight, maintained that position but professed himself in awe of Loeb's driving.
“Sebastien is incredibly fast - I don’t
understand! I was taking a lot of risks, aquaplaning all the time. It
was really difficult,” he said.
BP Ford Abu Dhabi team driver
Mikko Hirvonen was third fastest, six tenths of a second slower than
Sordo.
“It’s very difficult like yesterday, and we have some
condensation on the inside of the screen which is disturbing me,” he said. “We were quite close to Dani’s time - at one point two or three
seconds up on the splits. I’ll try and chase him. We’ll see.”
Australian Chris
Atkinson set the fourth fastest time but said he would be taking it a lot easier today after the lessons learned yesterday.
“After
hitting a power pole at 100kph yesterday I took it a bit carefully in
there,” he said. “I saw Conrad [Rautenbach] off the road and then
got stuck behind Sebastien Ogier and couldn’t get past. But in these
conditions it’s difficult, so I can’t blame him.”
Rautenbach
retired after sliding into a ditch on a left-hand corner at the
19.6km point. Ogier arrived at the finish control 2min 40sec slower
than stage winner Loeb with his C4 WRC missing its front bumper and
lamp pod and his co-driver’s door flapping open. Ogier and Rautenbach’s
problems slipped them down the standings, allowing Atkinson to move up
to fifth overall.
Stobart Ford driver Henning Solberg held
fourth place overall despite losing time with a right-hand front
puncture. “We had it for a long time, which was a shame. I don’t know
what I hit - nothing I think - I was taking it slow, but that’s how it
is,” he said.
[Additional quotes courtesy www.wrc.com]