Sebastien Loeb took the early Rally GB lead by winning the Thursday evening superspecial in Cardiff Bay, Wales. Amid rain and very strong winds, the World Rally Champion set a time of 1m16.1sec to beat his Citroen teammate Sebastien Ogier by 0.7sec.
It was an all-Citroen top four, with the Junior team car of Dani Sordo third and the Solberg C4 of Petter Solberg next up ahead of top Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala. Kimi Raikkonen also made an encouraging start in the second Citroen Junior C4. The Finn was sixth, just ahead of works Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen.
The rally commences in earnest in the Welsh forests tomorrow morning.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 1m16.1s
2. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 0.7s
3. Dani Sordo Citroen + 1.2s
4. Petter Solberg Citroen + 1.6s
5. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1.8s
6. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 3.3s
7. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 3.4s
8. Matthew Wilson Ford + 4.0s
9. Ken Block Ford + 4.3s
10. Henning Solberg Ford + 5.7s