World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Loeb has admitted he was mystified by a problem which affected the handling of his Citroen DS3 WRC on last week's Jordan Rally.
The Frenchman finished the event third, but admittedly he was disappointed with the result and the fact that he was unable to fight through the second loops of stages in the Middle East.
Loeb said: "I was very fast in the fast and too slow in the slow. I did not really understand why. In the [final] afternoon, we said we had better make certain [of points] and stopped fighting for the win.
"The second loops have been harder on this rally. I had oversteer and the rear [of the Citroen] had trouble staying in the lines. I'm quite lost with this. It's a problem that we have to adjust to do better next time. We'll think about that this week."
Loeb flew straight from Jordan to China, where he will attend the Shanghai Motor Show with Citroen. He will run first on the road for the first time this season on next month's Rally d'Italia-Sardegna, and admits it's going to be tough.
"So far, it was OK to be opening a rally, but this year the gaps have narrowed, we can no longer make up time lost during the early stages," he noted.