Eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb increased his lead to 20.4 seconds during Friday’s three afternoon stages of the 2012 Rally Deutschland.
Despite not winning all of the stages, Loeb was the most consistent of the drivers, with Jari-Matti Latvala going quickest on two of the last three stages of Day 1.
Latvala remained third, 9 seconds behind second-placed Ford teammate Petter Solberg who’s now 20 seconds adrift from Loeb, while Thierry Neuville is not very far away in fourth.
Loeb’s Citroen teammate Mikko Hirvonen struggled for pace throughout the day and is now in sixth place behind Prodrive Mini driver Dani Sordo.
Nasser Al-Attiyah’s return to WRC isn’t going extremely well; the Qatari is 12th overall.
Leading positions after SS6: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 1h22m18.0s 2. Petter Solberg Ford + 20.4s 3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 29.4s 4. Thierry Neuville Citroen Junior + 34.5s 5. Dani Sordo Prodrive Mini + 46.7s 6. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 48.9s 7. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 1m17.9s 8. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 1m28.7s 9. Chris Atkinson Portugal Mini + 2m34.8s 10. Sebastien Ogier VW Skoda + 3m43.3s