LONDON, 18 September 2005 — Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb was heading for a record ninth victory of the season after reeling off a string of stage wins in the Rally of Britain yesterday.
However, despite the Frenchman taking six stages in a row to establish a commanding lead, his chances of clinching a second successive World Championship with four rounds to spare today receded.
Loeb, the first man to win more than six rallies in a season, led Subaru’s Norwegian Petter Solberg by 44.5 seconds with Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm nearly a minute and a half adrift in third place after 12 stages.
The Citroen driver needs to beat Gronholm by eight points and Solberg by three to clinch the title today. If the situation remains unchanged, he will beat Gronholm by four and Solberg by two.
With just a 1.1km indoor superspecial under the retractable roof of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to complete the leg, Loeb was confident after closing in on a first win in Britain.
“Now we have I think a good lead, but it was a very good battle and we were pushing very hard,” he told rally radio. The stages are very nice and very fast so it’s a very good feeling.
“Tomorrow there are four long stages and so it’s never finished before the end. I hope I can stay in front of Petter and not make a mistake or have some problems.”
Starting the day just 9.9 seconds ahead of Solberg, after picking up a 10-second penalty for arriving late at a time control on Friday, Loeb swiftly made up for lost time.
“I tried very hard today and it doesn’t look very good actually,” said Solberg. “Nothing seems to work properly and that’s how it is ... I’m on full throttle and pushing like hell. They are too far away now to give it a proper fight.”
Gronholm, whose team are just six points behind stablemates Citroen in the manufacturers’ standings, continued to charge after falling to 17th place on Friday when he suffered brake problems. The Finn leapfrogged ahead of Mitsubishi’s Harri Rovanpera on the 12th stage when his compatriot struggled with gearbox difficulties and fell to fifth.
Citroen’s Belgian Francois Duval was fourth with Peugeot’s Markko Martin in sixth place. Briton Colin McRae, the 1995 world champion making a one-off comeback for Skoda after leaving Citroen at the end of 2003, was 10th and just ahead of his Northern Irish protege Kris Meeke in a Subaru.
“It’s been quite tough today and the conditions have been really hard and fast,” said the Scot. “It’s just taking a bit of time to get confidence in the car but there’s a limit to how quick it can go as well. I think we’re getting close to that limit.”
After 55 successive rallies in the points, Ford were sweating after Finland’s Toni Gardemeister was excluded for having an underweight car while he was running ninth. Czech teammate Roman Kresta moved up to that position.
Subaru’s Australian Chris Atkinson retired from the leg after spinning and sliding down a steep slope on the day’s opening stage.
French driver Stephane Sarrazin made it a double blow for the team when he retired on the next stage after sliding straight into an earth bank.
