Loeb out of Friday's competition

Sebastien Loeb has retired from the first full day of the Swedish Rally because of mechanical damage caused after he rolled his car on Special Stage four.

The Frenchman, contesting his 100th WRC rally, later incurred a fifty second penalty for arriving five minutes late at the midday service point.

A broken clutch meant his car had to be pushed into the Citroen service area, where four mechanics were allowed to work on the car for 15 minutes. But with the supply of spare parts limited only to those carried on board, there was little his mechanics could do to fix the clutch and a water pressure problem which affected his engine.

Loeb left service saying that wasn’t sure his car would last the day and he parked it on the roadside just 10km later.

Whether or not Loeb will restart as a Superally entrant will be confirmed later.