Citroen drivers prepare for epic battle in Greece

Acropolis leader Sebastien Loeb says he’s expecting to face some tough competition on Saturday’s second day from his Total-Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo.

Loeb ended Friday’s opening day with a 15 second rally lead but will have to contend with running first though Saturday’s six stages and facing the worst of the slippery gravel which covers the roads.

Sordo, on the other hand, will run as third car through and should benefit from a racing line swept cleaner by Loeb and the second man through, Jari-Matti Latvala.

“I know Dani really wants to win a rally,” said Loeb. “He’s driving fast here so at the moment we are both doing our own race. I’m not sure how my road position will affect things tomorrow. When you are first in Greece road position is certainly important, but not more than in Sardinia or somewhere else. Maybe I don’t have so many stones on the road than those following - maybe I’m try to put some there! For sure it will be difficult; maybe I’ll lose some time in some stages, but okay we’ll see. I tried hard today to take as big a lead as possible. Tomorrow we’ll see if it is enough.”

“I’m happy with the feeling in the car and our performance today,” said Sordo. “And of course it was very important for me to get a good position on the road for day two. But even with that placing I expect it’s going to be very hard tomorrow. There will be a lot of stones, and the possibility to puncture might make it difficult to make a full attack. But we’ll see.”