WRC Rally Ireland Report Day One: Sebastian Loeb Back to His Same Old Ways

The final two stages scheduled to conclude the opening leg of Rally Ireland have been cancelled. Both the 24.7km Murley and the 14.77km Fardross stages will now not take place due to excessive flooding.

The 2009 FIA World Rally Championship opening round saw the day start in very windy and wet conditions, and while the conditions improved slightly over the day, most competitors kept the Pirelli SottoZero tire, more commonly known as the Monte Carlo snow tire, before heavy rain began to fall again this evening. “It's a shame, but what can they do with the weather,” declared Henning Solberg.

Sebastien Loeb's fifth straight stage win of the day saw the Citroen C4 pilot extend his advantage by another four seconds to a comfortable 44 seconds from Citroen teammate Dani Sordo. Mikko Hirvonen ends the day in third with his Ford Focus, with Solberg now up to fourth position in his Stobart Ford Focus entry.

“We push since the first stage and now with the snow tire it is going very well and we push hard,” Loeb explained before adding that he will probably continue on the "snow tire" when the action gets underway in the dark this evening.

Second position is also the domain of Citroen with Sordo able to pull another 15 seconds over the disappointed Ford driver Hirvonen. “It's really good to drive now with the snow tires,” the Spaniard said. “With Mikko, everything is perfect!”

Hirvonen was again left frustrated after stalling his Focus mid-stage. “I battle with Sordo but—the engine—it is not going so well,” the works Focus driver said. “I keep on losing...but there is a long way to go.”

Hirvonen is now 65 seconds behind Loeb after six stages, and Citroen appears to be starting 2009 the same way they ended last season—in dominating fashion.

However, as disappointed as Hirvonen and his Ford crew were, his stage was a lot better than that experienced by Urmo Aava.

In fourth place heading into what would be the final stage of the day in his Stobart Ford Focus, Aava went off just ahead of the third split and found himself stuck in a ditch.  It was an impressive Stobart debut for the Estonian driver in spite of the result.

Conrad Rautenbach is fifth overnight in his Citroen Junior C4 ahead of teammate and IRC Monte Carlo winner Sebastien Ogier. Chris Atkinson, Matthew Wilson, Gareth Machale, and Eamonn Boland round out the top 10.

The drivers now return to Slingo for the night. The second leg of Rally Ireland gets underway Saturday morning with the first passing of Sloughan Glen, where Sebastien Loeb will continue his seemingly inevitable push towards his 48th WRC win.