Loeb still leads Ogier in Germany

Date published : 20 Aug 2011 - 09:44:22

Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier continue to dominate Rallye Deutschland for Citroen, running 4.8 seconds apart at the head of the field after 10 stages.The gap between the pair has ebbed and flowed this morning, with two stage wins for Ogier and one for Loeb, who admitted he lost a little time with a mistake on the morning's final stage, the famous Panzerplatte."I went straight at a junction," Loeb explained. "The braking was okay, but it was a bit more dusty than I expected. I think it would have been okay, but I didn't try [to make the corner]."Asked by reporters at the stage end if Citroen had asked its drivers to follow team orders given their massive advantage over the field, Ogier replied: "I have nothing to say about that. I'm just trying to improve my speed here. I think we're going in the right direction and that's the most important thing."Dani Sordo now holds an outstanding third place in the best of the Minis after Mikko Hirvonen was delayed by a puncture on Panzerplatte."I think we had nine kilometres to the finish, something like that," Hirvonen said. "No idea where it went. We hit some holes and there are sharp edges on the Tarmac."Both Minis are in the top five, after a morning of place swapping between Kris Meeke and Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen). The Mini fell back when Meeke had a minor excursion on the opening Hermeskeil-Gusenburg stage, but reclaimed the place when Solberg had a puncture on SS9, Birkenfelder Land. They are now 16.8s apart.Dennis Kuipers' breakthrough rally got better still this morning when he moved ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Henning Solberg to hold seventh for a while, although Raikkonen took the place on Panzerplatte - despite the ex-Formula 1 champion being unhappy with his driving.Jari-Matti Latvala was quickest on the opening stage of the day in the second Ford and is now back in the top 10, but after his litany of problems yesterday he is still six minutes adrift of the front.Leading positions after SS10:Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 2h01m37.3s 2. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 4.8s 3. Dani Sordo Mini + 2m00.3s 4. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 2m33.2s 5. Kris Meeke Mini + 2m35.6s 6. Petter Solberg Solberg Citroen + 2m52.4s 7. Kimi Raikkonen Ice 1 Citroen + 4m50.9s 8. Dennis Kuipers FERM Ford + 4m54.3s 9. Henning Solberg Stobart Ford + 4m57.9s10. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 6m19.6s