Corsica, Oct 19: Belgium's Francois Duval leads the Corsica rally. Belgium's Francois Duval grabbed the the lead in the Corsica rally on Saturday (October 18) after overnight leader Sebastien Loeb of France spun his Citroen on stage eight.
Favourite Loeb, running on slick tyres despite overnight rain, had to wait for spectators to help him and lost about 10 minutes on the second stage of the day. Duval, second overnight and the youngest driver in the championship at 22, leads in a Ford after the ninth stage with Spain's veteran Carlos Sainz second in a Citroen, 11.6 seconds behind. World champion Marcus Gronholm is third and championship leader Richard Burns eighth in another Peugeot, one minute 17 seconds off the pace. Burns has 57 points, Loeb -- now in 17th place -- 55 and Sainz 53 with two rallies left in the season after Corsica.


Duval could have been even further ahead if he had not stalled his car at the beginning of the eighth stage on the Mediterranean island and lost about 15 seconds getting it away.


Estonia's Markko Martin crashed and lost a wheel from his Ford in the eighth stage after winning the first of the day. Fifth overnight, Martin lost about five minutes and is 14th despite winning four of the nine stages.

Saturday's 190 kms makes it the longest day's racing on the 2003 calendar.


Leading times after the ninth stage on the second day of the Rally of Corsica on Saturday: 1. Francois Duval (Belgium) Ford two hours five minutes 48.6 seconds 2. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen 11.6 seconds behind 3= Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 26.4 3= Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 26.4 5. Gilles Panizzi (France) Peugeot 44.9 6. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 49.8 7. Philippe Bugalski (France) Citroen 1:14.2 8. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 1:17.0 9. Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru 1:48.0 10. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford 1:59.8


Bureau Report