WRC:Loeb nearing a minute's lead time

[Plex]

First take-off of the afternoon, second run on the Ibarrila portion : the longest stretch of Rally Mexico.

Citro�n Sport driver S�bastien Loeb has added another stage to his score after losing the previous one to BP Ford's Marcus Gr�nholm. Loeb's time is 18'2''6 on this occasion while Gr�nholm stays close by, taking only an extra 1.6 seconds to cross the same thirty-kilometer stretch.

Said Gr�nholm : "The car is good and I am in full confidence." His teammate Mikko Hirvonen takes third place for this Stage with the other BP Ford Focus, while Loeb's Citro�n teammate Dani Sordo takes fourth. Jari-Matti Latvala achieved the fifth spot for the Stobart Team.

Subaru driver Chris Atkinson crossed the line with the sixth best time and complained of a noticeable loss of power. It was found that the rear bumper had dropped a few centimeters, thereby partly covering the exhaust pipe. That and the melting of the bumper itself might explain the problem.

Manfred Stohl is next in line with a position in seventh for OMV Kronos Citro�n, while Stobart driver Henning Solberg follows. Before starting off for this SS12, Solberg declared therefore explaining his outlook on current results.

Matthew Wilson and Gareth MacHale finish off the Top Ten.

Up on the leaderboard, the first three drivers have retained their positions for now : S�bastien Loeb, Marcus Gr�nholm and Mikko Hirvonen, with a 59''2-second gap between the first two drivers, and a 1.9-second gap between the last two.

Dani Sordo moves up one notch to the fourth lead. With his exhaust problem, Atkinson has dropped to fifth but remains close by to Sordo with an overall 1.3-second delay.

Regarding Petter Solberg's quitting the Rally Mexico this morning because of mechanical damage suffered yesterday, a Subaru team member declared : �The rock hit the engine cooler � it's a chance in a million. We could run the car twenty years before it happens again.� Unfortunately for Solberg, it happened yesterday. The good news is, theoretically, it won't be a worry for the next two decades�

Again, the drivers are complaining of stones being thrown on the cars and the road, and of barriers being partially closed thereby forcing some cars to push their way through.

Rally-Live