Loeb extends his lead in Jordan

Citroën’s Sebastien Loeb had a comfortable win in this weekend’s Rally of Jordan and extended his lead in the World Rally Championship. The tactical games adopted by Citroën and Ford to ensure their top drivers had the best possible road conditions on the dusty stages were one of the main features of the rally.

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, Citroen's Dani Sordo and Solberg Citroen's Petter Solberg fought for the lead in the early stages, while Loeb (Citroen) and Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) started slower as they swept the dusty stages clear for the rest of the pack.

On Friday, with Hirvonen crashing out on the day’s opening stage Loeb took the lead of the race with a 27 seconds lead.

For Saturday’s stages a lot of tactics where played to get the best starting order. The running order saw Ogier depart first followed by Loeb, Hirvonen and Latvala, with Loeb avoiding the worst of the stage conditions and cruising to victory with wins on the morning stages. With a 35.8 seconds advantage over Latvala, Loeb extended his lead at the WRC standings, with Latvala in second with a drift of 25 points and Hirvonen 31 points behind the French, after a series of penalties threw him into 19th spot.

Solberg, Sordo and Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson completed the top-five, followed by Ogier, Federico Villagra (Munchi's Ford) and Kimi Raikkonen (Citroen Junior), with the Finn enjoying a virtually trouble-free rally.

In the S2000, Xevi Pons took the victory by a huge margin in Jordan with PG Andersson, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Bernardo Sousa failing to upset the ex-Citroen WRC driver with crashes and failures.

In the production class victory smiled at Patrik Flodin ahead of Armindo Araújo.

The next WRC Rally will take place in two weeks time in Turkey on the 16-18 of April.