Sebastien Loeb has got his bid for a ninth ADAC Rallye Deutschland victory off to the perfect start by setting the quickest time in shakedown for round nine of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Driving a Citroen DS3 WRC, Loeb set a fastest time of 2m25.2s through the 4.55-kilometre stage around the village of Kommlingen in warm and dry conditions.
Jari-Matti Latvala gave the factory Ford team cause for optimism with the second fastest time, 0.8s behind Loeb. Mads Ostberg equalled Latvala’s time in his privateer Fiesta RS WRC with Petter Solberg 0.3s further back in fourth.
Belgian Thierry Neuville, who was born less than 100 kilometres from the rally base in Trier, was fifth fastest with a time of 2m26.4s for the Citroen Junior World Rally Team.
Mikko Hirvonen was sixth quickest, 0.2s down on Loeb with Dani Sordo seventh on his return to the world championship in his Prodrive-run MINI John Cooper Works WRC. Ott Tanak’s shakedown was interrupted while his M-Sport mechanics repaired damage inflicted on his Fiesta following a knock on the stage.
Chris Aktinson, making his debut for WRC MINI Team Portugal, was 10th with Nasser Al-Attiyah - back in action following his heroics in the London 2012 Olympics - 11th for the Qatar World Rally Team.
The top 10 positions could change slightly with Evgeny Novikov among a handful of drivers still taking part after the stage was stopped to retrieve Marcos Ligato’s crashed Subaru Impreza.