Sebastien Loeb takes the lead and heads a Citroen 1-2 post-SS1 in Finland.
Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb has taken the early initiative on the Neste Oil Rally Finland following the short 2.06 kilometre-run through the Killeri super special this evening, which as normal kicked off proceedings.
Loeb was paired with current championship leader and chief rival for the crown, local star Mikko Hirvonen in his ‘duel’ and the Frenchman came out top by 0.4 seconds, completing the test in 1 minute 20.5 seconds.
Hirvonen’s ‘best’ left him joint third on the overall leaderboard with Subaru’s Chris Atkinson, while was Dani Sordo second to give Citroen an early 1-2.
Mikko had a little scare during his run in front of the thousands of fans, who turned out to watch the 99 starters. Indeed the BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT #1 gently tapped the barriers near the start and sustained some minor damage to the rear of his Focus.
“It was an enjoyable, fast stage but it was also a little scary because the test has been built with concrete and metal blocks so it was important not to damage the car,” said Hirvonen, who is celebrating his 28th birthday today.
“For me the rally starts tomorrow and I didn’t drive flat out because I have bad memories of retiring there in 2004, so I took it cautiously. There is always so much excitement on the opening stage of Rally Finland and it’s great the event has finally started. I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
Petter Solberg meanwhile completed the top five, fractionally ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala, while Citroen privateer Urmo Aava and Andreas Mikkelsen were seventh and eighth respectively.
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