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Ogier takes early lead in first day of Rally Jordan

The action on Jordan Rally, round four of the FIA World Rally Championship, finally got underway today following the late arrival of the teams’ equipment into the country. And, at the end of the first day of competition, four drivers are in the frame for victory. Sébastien Ogier has claimed the overnight lead with team-mate Sébastien Loeb second. Jari-Matti Latvala holds third, just seconds ahead of Petter Solberg.

When the boat arriving from Europe was delayed due to engine failure and poor weather conditions, yesterday’s planned opening day of competition had to be cancelled, resulting in a loss of 73.48 competitive kilometres. The route for today and the final day on Saturday remain unchanged however and the crews finally got into action this morning with two loops of three stages covering 144.30 competitive kilometres.

Loeb took the early advantage but was overhauled by Ogier in the third stage. From thereon Ogier maintained a slim lead throughout the afternoon until Loeb tactically slowed in the final stage to gain a more advantageous road position for Saturday, extending the gap between them. However, having slowed in the middle of the stage, the Frenchman then had a couple of problems later in the test, which resulted in him being 31.6 seconds adrift of his team-mate. Reacting to Loeb’s tactics, Latvala also slowed to position himself in third position, just 1.5 seconds adrift. Also in the fight for victory is Petter Solberg. The Norwegian went off the road briefly this morning but is now fourth, 2.2 seconds behind Latvala.

Behind the front-runners, Mikko Hirvonen has struggled running first on the road today and the Finn is two and a half minutes adrift of the lead. He also had power steering failure in the final stage. Kimi Räikkönen has had a solid day and lies sixth, battling with Hirvonen ahead and Matthew Wilson behind. The top 10 is rounded off by Khalid Al Qassimi, Federico Villagra and Nasser Al Attiyah - driving a Super 2000 Ford Fiesta – who lost time this afternoon with a problem connected to the ECU. Retirements of the day include Mads Östberg with a broken gearbox, and Henning Solberg who was forced out when he damaged the oil sump. Both will restart on Saturday.

Saturday is the final day of Jordan Rally and covers two loops of four stages before the finish back at the Dead Sea.

Jordan Rally - Results after Day 1