Thierry Neuville has taken the lead at the 2013 Rally France – the eleventh round of the World Rally Championship season – by dominating Friday’s afternoon stages. Neuville was initially second to Sebastien Loeb, who won the morning’s 3 special stages and lead early on, but a string of fastest times by the Belgian helped him snatch first place as Loeb slipped back to fourth.
Dani Sordo and Jari-Matti Latvala both benefited from Loeb’s drop in performance to claim second and third places overall, while Sebastien Ogier enters the second day of action 28.7 seconds off the lead; The World Champion has been struggling for pace throughout the day.
Loeb’s Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen is down in eighth place with more than a minute and a half separating him from Neuville’s M-Sport Ford, he now has to worry about Mads Ostberg who’s only 4 seconds behind.
Leading positions after SS7: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford 1h08m56.5s 2. Dani Sordo Citroen +9.8s 3. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +11.8s 4. Sebastien Loeb Citroen +12.2s 5. Sebastien Ogier VW +28.7s 6. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford +1m03.6s 7. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +1m26.4s 8. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen +1m33.5s 9. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +1m37.5s 10. Martin Prokop Czech Ford +2m36.3s