OMV Kronos Citroën driver François Duval claimed a slim 1.3 second lead after the opening leg of Rallye Deutschland. The Belgian, who has finished second in this event on two occasions, overhauled Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) in the final stage when the reigning World Champion found himself on the wrong tyres for the conditions. Series leader Marcus Grönholm is third overnight for Ford.

Rallye Deutschland is characterised by its varying nature of tarmac roads, as well as its unpredictable weather. Today, the crews headed to the narrow and bumpy tracks in the Mosel vineyards for nearly 130 competitive kilometres of action and, as crews cut corners and dragged gravel on to the road, conditions got progressively trickier. A mix of dry roads and light rain also added to the challenge.

Sébastien Loeb, who has won this event for the last five years, started in commanding form but, while he is considered to be the master of this rally, only managed to win two of the day’s six stages. Competition at the head of the field has been intense throughout the leg and, when the Frenchman was on soft tyres in the last stage, Duval managed to overhaul the Frenchman and claim the lead in his first outing with the Kronos team this year.

Marcus Grönholm lacked confidence early this morning, but various changes to the set up on the Ford Focus transformed the Finn’s performance and he climbed from seventh to third, despite a puncture. He had been in the thick of a battle with Dani Sordo (Citroën) and Petter Solberg (Subaru). Sordo managed to hold off the Finn this morning, but a neck and neck fight saw Grönholm inch ahead this afternoon. Sordo then dropped out of contention in the final stage with engine related problems. Solberg also slipped from fifth to seventh this afternoon when he hit a rock and damaged the steering. He overnights in ninth having lost more time in the final stage. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) and Toni Gardemeister (Citroën Xsara) therefore move up to hold fourth and fifth respectively with Jan Kopecký in an impressive sixth in a Škoda Fabia. Xavier Pons (Subaru Impreza) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus) round off the top eight. Subaru’s Chris Atkinson, a stage winner this afternoon, was off the road for eight minutes in only the second stage and as a consequence he overnights in 16th position, while Henning Solberg (Ford Focus) was forced out of the leg after damaging the front suspension.

Rallye Deutschland - Results after Leg 1
 

1	François Duval/Patrick Pivato	Citroën Xsara WRC	1 hr 14 min 10.9sec
2	Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	1 hr 14 min 12.2sec
3	Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	1 hr 14 min 28.3sec
4	Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	1 hr 14 min 33.6sec
5	Toni Gardemeister/Jakke Honkanen	Citroën Xsara WRC	1 hr 15 min 15.1sec
6	Jan Kopecký/Filip Schovánek	Škoda Fabia WRC	1 hr 15 min 37.5sec
7	Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo	Subaru Impreza WRC	1 hr 15 min 48.1sec
8	Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	1 hr 15 min 51.6sec

 
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