Loeb Wins First 3 Stages of Rally Germany

Half of day has passed in this year's Rally Germany and things seem to go their projected way. Meaning reigning champion Sebastian Loeb – the man who has never been beaten in Germany in his entire career, posting an incredible streak of 7 consecutive wins – has already scored three out of three stage wins on Friday, grabbing the lead from the get go.

The Frenchman had no problem winning the first three stages in the morning session, but his teammate Dani Sordo is keeping a close eye on him from 2nd place. The Spaniard, returning to Citroen's works team for the asphalt rounds of the 2010 season, lost only 8 seconds to his teammate, while the closest rival to Citroen's duo, Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, sits no less than 37 seconds behind Loeb.

At the end of SS2 though, Loeb's car slightly touched the barriers, causing some minor damage to his C4 WRC's right wheel rim. After a thorough check in the refuel are, Loeb's mechanics decided the wheel did not need to be changed.

“We broke the side of the wheel a little bit but we didn’t want to change it because doing that would have cost us a complete set of soft tires. So we kept it on and that turned out to be the right choice. With three fastest times it’s been a good start for us. The feeling in the car is okay, but Dani is pushing hard,” said Loeb after his flying start on Friday, according to WRC.

Behind 3rd placed Latvala is his Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen, who lost 40 seconds to Loeb after three stages. Their position in the rally does not reflect entirely what happened this morning, as Citroen's privateer Petter Solberg has been consistently faster than the Ford duo, yet he paid tribute to an early puncture in SS1 (which caused him almost 3 minutes overall). The Norwegian is placed 9th after SS3.

Additionally, Citroen Junior's Sebastien Ogier also experienced some troubles with his anti-stall system, which caused him to drop valuable seconds during SS3. He is now 5th overall, 10 seconds behind Hirvonen, but almost a minute ahead of Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson.

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen lost more than 2 minutes to Loeb after the first few stages and rests in 7th overall, ahead of Belgian returnee Francoise Duval. The Ford driver experienced a transmission problem midway through the Friday morning session and dropped two places due to being left on two-wheel-drive for the remainder of the action. Finally, the Top 10 is completed by Ken Block.