HERMOSILLO: Sebastien Loeb took the outright lead in the Sonora Rally with a superb stage victory for Bahrain Raid Xtreme as Prodrive Hunters dominated second-day proceedings in Mexico.
Partnered by Fabian Lurquin in his BRX Prodrive Hunter, Loeb secured a 2 minutes, 45 seconds victory on the 162-km second stage from overnight leader Nasser Al-Attiyah, to grab a slender overall advantage over his chief rival in the World Rally-Raid Championship.
The result means nine-time World Rally Champion Loeb still has control in the WRRC title race, in which he led Al-Attiyah by 16 points heading into the third round in Mexico.
It was an outstanding day for the Prodrive Hunters, which set four of the five fastest times on a stage guarded by giant cacti, and it could have been better.
Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winocq, last year’s Rallye du Maroc winners, finished the day holding third place overall in their Hunter, despite losing front-wheel drive over the last 45 kilometers to be fifth on the stage.
Brazilian brothers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart powered the two other Hunters to the third and fourth-fastest times, also securing top 10 overall positions on only their second full competitive stage in the car.
Loeb benefited from a cautious approach early on as he plotted his path through the cacti.
He said: “It was a good day and we took the win for Bahrain Raid Xtreme and for Prodrive.
“No problem at all. I tried to take a good pace from the start, even though the first kilometers were really tricky, a bit dangerous even, so I was a little cautious.
“But after that it was a nice stage. [It was] very narrow in some places and not easy to get through the cactus with a big car, but at the end we kept that pace right to the finish. We took the stage so now we open tomorrow, but for today it’s a great result.”
Chicherit, who had set a scorching early pace, said: “We had a good start, the speed was right there and we were really pushing until we stopped at the neutralization.
“When we restarted, we lost the front-wheel drive, so we did the last 45 km on rear-wheel drive. There was nothing we could do but just try to not lose too much at the end.”
