WRC Cyprus Rally: Loeb Still Dominates

Sebastien Loeb is one day away from notching his 50th World Rally Championship victory.  The Citroen C4 driver ended the second day of the WRC Rally Cyprus with an overall lead to 49.8 seconds through unpredictable conditions that started muddy in the morning.   

Erratic overnight rain created difficult driving conditions, with damp and soggy roads on morning stages, and dry and dusty surfaces in the afternoon.
Loeb remained untouchable in the mud but the situation changed for Loeb in the afternoon when dry roads left the Frenchman struggling for grip.

Then Loeb had to back off the pace on both afternoon stages when he experienced brake problems.
 
“We tried to fix them after the previous stage but we still had problems with the balance and their temperature on this one,” Loeb explained after SS11. “The brakes reached 600°C at the rear and 200°C at the front so we had to drive very smoothly to keep the temperature down.

"Then, one kilometer from the end, we spun and stalled on a hairpin and I had to reverse to get going again. So okay, two very difficult stages in the afternoon, we lost some time, but we’re still in the lead and that’s the most important thing for the moment.”

Spaniard Dani Sordo in a Citroen slipped a spot to third place which allowed Mikko Hirvonen in a Ford moved up to second position.

Norwegian Petter Solberg in a Citroen Xsara was fourth, amazingly setting the fastest times in the 10th and 11th stages.

Jari-Matti Latvala's Ford Focus crashed off the road in the second stage, as the Finn was then running fourth in the overall line-up.

He was then forced to run for a kilometer for help to get the car out of a ditch.

Leaderboard after day two
1. S Loeb/D Elena (FRA)                         Citroën C4               3h33m43.8s
2. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen (FIN)                 Ford Focus RS          +49.8s
3.D Sordo/M Marti (ESP)                         Citroën C4               +1m36.0s
4. P Solberg/P Mills (NOR)                       Citroën Xsara           +1m51.9s
5. M Wilson/S Martin (GB)                        Ford Focus RS           +5m13.7s
6. S Ogier/J Ingrassia (FRA)                    Citroën C4               +5m42.8s
7. E Novikov/D Moscatt  (RUS)                 Citroën C4               +6m22.8s
8. C Rautenbach/D Barritt (ZW)               Citroën C4               +7m23.5s
9. F Villagra/J Perez Companc (ARG)         Ford Focus RS          +9m00.9s
10. K Al Qassimi/M Orr (UAE)                   Ford Focus RS          +9m29.6s
23. H Solberg/C Menkerud (NOR)           Ford Focus RS           +32m09.7s

Photo and Quotes Courtsey of WRC