Loeb thrives in German rain

Sebastien Loeb's campaign to win a ninth Rally of Germany title enjoyed a flying start on Friday as his rivals struggled in the rainy conditions on the first asphalt race of the season. Loeb carved out a 7.4-sec lead over Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier with Finland's Mikko Hirvonen in a factory Ford Fiesta in third place, but a massive 1min 18.4sec off the Frenchman's pace. "It's been a good day for me. I’ve been pushing very, very hard because Ogier has been pushing everywhere," said Loeb, who won three of the day's six stages. "It's not easy to make a difference but I'm leading and that's the main thing. We have a big gap to the others, I am just fighting with Ogier so for the manufacturers’ championship it's looking very good." Ford Focus driver Jari-Matti Latvala won the opening stage of the day but he was eventually caught out by running hard compound tyres on the rain-hit second stage where Loeb and Ogier opted for a soft compound.