Freddy Loix is on course for a historic fifth victory on the Ypres Rally after dominating the opening leg of the latest round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
Loix, one of two people to have won the event on four occasions, holds a 21.9 second lead over team-mate Nicolas Vouilloz after dominating the opening day – winning five of the six competitive stages.
Having set the pace during shakedown, the Peugeot man stamped his authority on proceedings from the start as he set the pace on SS1 ahead of current points leader Luca Rossetti, who quickly emerged as the Belgian drivers closest challenger. Indeed, while Loix won the first five stages, the Italian remained in touch as his closest rival despite admitting he wasn't pushing to the maximum in his bid to secure a third win in as many events this year.
However, on the final stage of the leg, a puncture saw Rossetti lose well over a minute and he plummeted down the order to end the leg down in tenth place. That promoted Vouilloz up to second place after he took honours on the final stage of the day, although Loix comfortably remains the man to beat.
"I went quite hard, but anything can still happen," he sad. "This is the sort of rally where it helps to know the roads a bit, but then you can make one small mistake and suddenly it is all over.
"I've not had the best start to the season, so I hope that this is where my season turns itself round. But I've been in the situation before when I've been leading and something has happened, so it's best not to make any predictions!"
Behind the Peugeot pairing, Giandomenico Basso holds third in his Abarth Grande Punto but he will head into the twelve stages that make up leg two looking over his shoulder with the VW Polo of Bernd Casier under four seconds behind. Czech driver Jan Kopecky had held fourth going into SS6 but was then forced to retire when he rolled his Peugeot out of the event, although both driver and co-driver escaped injury.
![Freddy Loix [Pic credit: IRC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/366635.jpg)
