Reigning FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb heads the leaderboard of the Cyprus Rally after the opening day of competition. The Citroën Total driver has a 41.8 second advantage over team-mate Dani Sordo with the BP Ford of Mikko Hirvonen in third position.

This year’s Cyprus Rally provides another different challenge for the crews, it being the WRC’s first mixed surface rally since 1996. Today’s opener took place on asphalt while Saturday and Sunday will take the crews onto the gravel stages of the Troodos Mountains. Here, the roads are notoriously rough and twisty and will demand strength and reliability from the cars. Added to the challenge is the fact that the crews will be running the entire event on Pirelli’s gravel tyres.

Loeb set the pace from the outset, the Frenchman also benefiting from running first on the road this morning, as following cars pulled gravel onto the stages making grip unpredictable. He won all but one of the day’s stages and experienced no problems. Sordo, in the sister C4 WRC, shines on asphalt rallies and has mirrored Loeb’s faultless performance, rounding off the day with a fastest stage time.

Behind the Citroëns, Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala hold third and fourth respectively. Hirvonen, getting used to the feeling of gravel tyres on asphalt, lost nearly 14 seconds to Loeb in the first stage alone and later admitted he was just too cautious despite the conditions being exactly as anticipated. Latvala had brake problems in the second stage but is closely matching his team-mate, despite never contesting the Cyprus Rally previously.

Petter Solberg, driving a privately entered Citroën Xsara, is fifth with 2008 Junior World Rally Champion, Sébastien Ogier, sixth in a Citroën C4 WRC. Citroën Junior Team driver Evgeny Novikov holds seventh with Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) rounding off the top eight. The only leading retirement of the day was Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford), who was forced out before the first stage when he was involved in a road traffic accident. No one was injured, but the damage to the car was too bad for the Norwegian to continue today.

Cyprus Rally - Results after Day 1

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