Sordo leads as Loeb out of Rally of France

Dani Sordo of Mini Cooper was the surprise face in the driving seat after the opening day of the Rally of France on Friday after Citroen star Sebastien Loeb, chasing an eighth world title, was forced to retire with engine problems. Citroen teammate Sebastien Ogier had briefly taken in the mantle of leader before Sordo overtook him in the afternoon session to drive to the top of the race standings. All looked to be going as planned for Loeb, 37, as he won the opening stage in his native Alsace and he also led after the first two stages before his car ground to a halt during special stage three. Loeb now risks being caught by Hirvonen who is only 15 points behind the Frenchman in the overall standings, and could catch him by finishing on the podium. The French ace admitted his race hopes had been torpedoed almost at the outset in this the 11th leg of the 13-rally season. "You can always have a doubt that it's not completely broken, but in my opinion it's no," said the seven-time world champion of his chances of continuing. "For the moment the engineers aren't saying much, they say that there was a swift drop in oil pressure, and they will have to examine it, but it's not very encouraging for tomorrow (Saturday)," Loeb said. His team later confirmed that for the first time since Catalunya in 2004 the French driver was being forced out of a rally because of engine failure. "We couldn't believe it because we're not used to that," Loeb continued. "The car always worked well, we've never had mechanical problems since the start of the season. "Everything looked to be going well, it was sunny, the roads dry, I was leading and it ends quite badly." Sordo will Saturday defend a one-second lead in his Mini John Cooper Works over Citroen's Petter Solberg with Ogier 2.8sec adrift. Special stage three proved no better for Citroen's arch-rival Ford than for Loeb, as both Loeb's leading title rival Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala went off the road but were able to continue and are sixth and fifth respectively with Sordo teammate Kris Meeke fourth at 54.5sec. Finland's Kimi Raikkonen crashed his Citroen warming his tyres before SS3. After Loeb's misfortune Ogier has a chance to rekindle his championship bid. He is 29 points behind Loeb but can take 28 points on Sunday - 25 from winning the rally and three in the final Power Stage around Loeb's home town of Haguenau. Loeb leads the overall standings with 196 points. Hirvonen - who has 1min 20sec to make up from day one - is second on 181 with Ogier third on 167.