Sebastien Loeb got his bid for victory on Rallye de France off to a great start by winning Friday’s opening two stages and moving into a 7.3 second overall lead.
After rain overnight, conditions were damp and slippery on the Hohlandsbourg and Firstplan stages, with many drivers reporting tricky conditions as the roads became mud spattered.
The choice of tyres for the conditions was straightforward, with all WRC drivers electing to fit Pirelli PZeros in soft compound.
Loeb was 3.9sec quicker than anybody else through the opening 9.9km Hohlandsbourg (SS1), with Sebastien Ogier, also in a Citroen C4 WRC, his closest rival.
Citroen privateer Petter Solberg got closest to Loeb’s stage winning time on SS2 - completing the 16.58km stage 2.1seconds slower.
Overall standings after SS2:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sébastien LOEB | Citroën C4 WRC | 13m38.3s |
| 02 | Sébastien OGIER | Citroën C4 WRC | +7.3s |
| 03 | Petter SOLBERG | Citroën C4 WRC | +8.3s |
| 04 | Dani SORDO | Citroën C4 WRC | +9.6s |
| 05 | Jari-Matti LATVALA | Ford Focus WRC | +18.1s |
| 06 | Mikko HIRVONEN | Ford Focus WRC | +29.2s |
| 07 | Kimi RAIKKONEN | Citroën C4 WRC | +43.6s |
| 08 | Federico VILLAGRA | Ford Focus WRC | +1m12.3s |
| 09 | Ken BLOCK | Ford Focus WRC | +1m12.8s |
| 10 | Frigyes TURAN | Peugeot 307 WRC | +1m17.5s |
| 11 | Matthew WILSON | Ford Focus WRC | +1m19.4s |
| 12 | Khalid AL QASSIMI | Ford Focus WRC | +1m25.9s |
| 13 | Yvan MULLER | Citroën Xsara WRC | +1m27.8s |
| 14 | Henning SOLBERG | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +1m28.4s |
| 15 | Eyvind BRYNILDSEN | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +1m34.2s |