LONDON, 27 June 2004 — Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb retained his lead at the end of the second day of the Rally of Turkey yesterday after a tight battle with Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm in the final stage.
Norwegian world champion Petter Solberg won the 20.38-km Kemer sixth stage, the 13th of the rally, with Gronholm five seconds slower to earn second place.
Frenchman Loeb, the championship leader, came in just 0.1 seconds behind, however, and maintained a race lead of 15.9 seconds over the Finn before Sunday’s last four stages. Twice world champion Gronholm set the early pace on Saturday to boost his hopes of reviving his third title bid.
The Finn had topped the standings in May but was stripped of victory in Cyprus for using an illegal engine part.
His hopes of a fight back were then thwarted when he was forced to retire with a broken suspension in the Acropolis Rally earlier this month.
Gronholm led after Saturday’s first two stages, overhauling overnight leader Loeb when the Frenchman stalled twice and picked up a 10-second jump-start penalty.
But Loeb hit back to win the next two and take a 14-second lead over Gronholm, who could manage only fifth place on the 36.1-km Kumluca 2 fourth stage.
Solberg, who had been trailing the leader by more than a minute at that point, rallied to win the fifth and sixth stages in his Subaru. He remains 50.4 seconds behind Loeb, however.
Loeb leads the overall standings with 43 points, with Solberg on 38. Estonian Markko Martin is third with 34 points and Gronholm fourth on 24.
