AJACCIO, Corsica, 17 October 2004 — Frenchman Sebastien Loeb could be celebrating his first world title today if he successfully negotiates his next four timed stages after settling comfortably into third in the French rally standings.
The Citroen driver took it relatively easy on the winding roads of southern Corsica yesterday, leaving Ford’s Estonian Marrko Martin and Belgian Francois Duval to steal the show.
“I tried not to attack too much, just control,” he said. But Loeb, who needs only five points from the last three world championship races to be crowned, steadily increased his lead over Norwegian Petter Solberg, his only rival for the title. The young Frenchman attacked in the last of four timed stages on a rainy Saturday to take second place in that section behind current rally leader Martin.
“Halfway through the timed stage I smelt a strange smell as though I had a puncture. I slowed down (so as) not to take any risks and I overtook (Frenchman) Alexandre Bengue and realized he was the one with the puncture,” said Loeb. “In spite of this little fright, everything went well. We made the right choice of tires,” he added. Bengue was one of the two Peugeot riders forced out of the rally after teammate Cedric Robert went off the road in the morning stage.
Despite leading for most of the day, Estonia’s Martin had a serious scare as well near the end of the 8th timed stage, the last of the day, when he reached the finish with flames coming out of his engine.
In spite of the fire, Martin managed to finish, win the stage and keep the rally lead with a slim 20.8 seconds advantage over teammate Duval.
Loeb lies third, 68 seconds behind Martin but with a cushion of 3:20 over Solberg.
Norway’s reigning world champion is only 6th behind two other former world champions, Spain’s Carloz Sainz, in a Citroen, and Finland’s Marcus Gronholm in a Peugeot.
“I try everything but I seem to be getting nowhere,” Subaru driver Solberg said.
The race ends today with four more timed stages over a total of 112.6 km.
