WRC: Loeb tops German shakedown.

[Rory Phoulorie]

Thursday, 16th August 2007

Sebastien Loeb was quickest in the shakedown for the Rallye Deutschland, closely followed by Francois Duval.

Triple world champion, Sebastien Loeb was quickest in the shakedown for the Rallye Deutschland on Thursday morning, which took place in wet conditions.

Loeb, who goes into the event as the favourite, having won in Germany every year since it joined the WRCschedule back in 2002, completed the 5.32 kilometre test, near the village of Mesenich, in 3 minutes 43.6 seconds in his C4 WRC.

Francois Duval was next up, 'best of the rest', on his debut event with the OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team and his first with the Xsara WRC since his win on the Rally Australia at the end of 2005. The Belgian was just 0.2 seconds off Seb's C4.

"The Xsara is really good," said Duval. "I have the electronic diffs and if the conditions remain like this, it is promising. It is a small advantage in wet conditions."

Daniel Sordo meanwhile was third, to give Citroen a clean sweep of the top three, 1.1 seconds off Duval, while Skoda privateer, Jan Kopecky was fourth, followed by Subaru's Petter Solberg and OMV Kronos Citroen's Manfred Stohl.

Rally Finland winner, Marcus Gronholm had to settle for the seventh best time, with his BP Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen and Chris Atkinson joint eighth fastest.

Mikko however was not concerned by either his or Gronholm's lack of pace: "In Greece last year, I didn't do the shakedown and I was leading the rally, so I am not worried," he stated.

The ceremonial start now gets underway at 20.00 hours local time in Trier.

The action begins 'proper' on Friday morning with SS1, the 19.79 kilometre-run through Ruwertal/Fell, starting at 10.13 hours local time.


Leading shakedown times:

1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC 3mins 43.6secs M
2. Francois Duval OMV Kronos Citroen Xsara WRC 3mins 43.8secs M
3. Dani Sordo Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC 3mins 44.9secs M
4. Jan Kopecky Czech RT-Kopecky Fabia WRC 3mins 47.2secs
5. Petter Solberg SubaruWRT Impreza WRC 2007 3mins 47.7secs M
6. Manfred Stohl OMV Kronos Citroen Xsara WRC 3mins 48.1secs M
7. Marcus Gronholm BP Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3mins 48.6secs M
8. Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3mins 48.8secs M
= Chris Atkinson Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2006 3mins 48.8secs M
10. Toni Gardemeister Astra-PH Sport Citroen Xsara WRC 3mins 50.3secs

Key:

M denotes Manufacturer entry

all times unofficial

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