Dani Sordo rounded off a successful first day of competition alongside co-driver Diego Vallejo by setting the fastest time through Friday’s final stage.
The Spanish pair completed the repeated Moselland test in 12min 1sec - eight seconds better than their earlier time on stage three. The stage win means Sordo ends the opening day of Rally Deutschland in second place, 9.5sec adrift of overnight leader Sebastien Loeb.
But the stage brought further disappointment for another of the Citroen C4 WRC drivers. Two stages after Petter Solberg’s all-or-nothing approach netted him a stage win, the Norwegian dropped another two minutes when he went wide on a left-hand corner, clouted a kerb and broke a wheel. Solberg owned up to a driving error and said he had been two seconds quicker than Loeb at the previous split.
Standings after SS6 - end of Day 1:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sébastien LOEB | Citroën C4 WRC | 1h18m52.5s |
| 02 | Dani SORDO | Citroën C4 WRC | +9.5s |
| 03 | Jari-Matti LATVALA | Ford Focus WRC | +1m04.7s |
| 04 | Sébastien OGIER | Citroën C4 WRC | +1m10.9s |
| 05 | Mikko HIRVONEN | Ford Focus WRC | +1m14.5s |
| 06 | Francois DUVAL | Ford Focus WRC | +3m10.4s |
| 07 | Matthew WILSON | Ford Focus WRC | +3m15.1s |
| 08 | Kimi RAIKKONEN | Citroën C4 WRC | +3m22.8s |
| 09 | Petter SOLBERG | Citroën C4 WRC | +4m47.7s |
| 10 | Ken BLOCK | Ford Focus WRC | +5m42.3s |
| 11 | Mark VAN ELDIK | Subaru Impreza WRC | +5m54.5s |
| 12 | Martin PROKOP | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +6m23.7s |
| 13 | Per Gunnar ANDERSSON | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +6m29.4s |
| 14 | Patrik SANDELL | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +6m41.5s |
| 15 | Eyvind BRYNILDSEN | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +6m57.8s |