Rally Italy, run in Sardinia, Kicked off on Thursday night with the first 2 stages of the rally which consisted of 2 runs through the Terranova stage.

After his performance in Qualifying, Latvala was expected to be on a charge through the 2 stages. Choosing first on the road in the hope that, the dust and lack of evening light would hamper the crews more than the road sweeping effect. Its a risk that didn’t pay off. On the first run he was 15 seconds off the fastest man Loeb, and then on the 2nd run, the Fin hit a rock which caused a puncture 10km’s into the stage and dropped him to 6th 42 seconds off the lead.

At the top, it’s Sebastien Loeb who is in control, and holds a very slim lead over team mate Mikko Hirvonen, the two Citroën drivers separated by just 1 second. Behind then Petter Solberg sits in 3rd position.

SS2 28,14kms. Stage times
Hirvo fastest
Loeb+0.3
PSolb+4.1
Neuvi+9.5
Novi+19.4
Ostb+22.5
JML(puncture)+27.1.

Overall results after 2 stages
Loeb leads
Hirvonen +1.1
PSolb+13.9
Neuvi+26.2
Ostb+33.5
JML+42.1