World Champion Sebastien Loeb was the fastest driver at this morning’s pre-event Shakedown test for Rally d’Italia - Sardegna, but expects to be slower than his rivals on Friday.
Today’s four-hour test took place on a 3.75km gravel road in Monte Pinu, 10km from the Service Park in Olbia. Weather conditions were dry throughout with clear skies and a temperature of 31°C.
Loeb, who has won the Sardinian event three times, made three passes through the stage in his Citroen Total team C4 WRC, recording his best time of 3min 15.0sec on his final attempt.
“It was okay but not so representative of the rally,” Loeb told official web wrc.com. “There were a lot of uphill hairpins, so it was a bit different to the actual stages. I just tried to see if everything was going well on the car and if the set-up looked okay. It was alright, so I had no problems.”
But while everything was in order at Shakedown, Loeb warned that the combination of bone dry stages and his start position of first on the road could seriously limit his speed on Friday.
Loeb - going further - said: “The stages were very slippery on the recce. It was very dry and I think it will be dry all weekend, so that’s going to makes road cleaning very important. You could see the difference in the times today - I was 15 seconds faster on my third pass compared to my first. That shows how much you have to clean the roads. I think that might be the key to this rally.”
The frenchman said he expected to lose time to his rivals on the opening day, but wasn’t sure whether tactics would come into play before Saturday. “It depends, because it’s possible I’ll lose nearly one minute on Friday,” he explained. “And if I was leading by that amount after the first day I’d find it very hard to give it up.”

Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Henning Solberg set the second fastest time, while his brother Petter was third in his Citroen.
BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala set exactly the same best time - which was the fifth quickest of the session. Hirvonen returned to his hotel after his second pass because he was feeling unwell.
The opening stage of the rally gets underway on Friday morning from 0932hrs.

WRC Rally d'Italia Sardinia shakedown times:

1. LOEB. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:15.0 s
2. H. SOLBERG. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:16.1 s
3. P. SOLBERG. Citroen Xsara WRC. 3:18.2 s
4. SORDO. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:18.9 s
=5. HIRVONEN. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:19.4 s
=5. LATVALA. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:19.4 s
7. WILSON. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:20.5 s
8. ÖSTBERG. Subaru Impreza WRC. 3:22.4 s
9. AL QASSIMI. Ford Focus RS WRC. 3:23.5 s
10. OGIER. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:24.0 s
11. VILLAGRA. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:25.2 s
12. RAUTENBACH. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:25.4 s
13. NOVIKOV. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:25.6 s