AUCKLAND — Eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb held a four-second lead over teammate Mikko Hirvonen Friday, following a dominant display by the Citroens on the opening day of the New Zealand rally. Frenchman Loeb and Finn Hirvonen topped seven of the rally's first eight stages south-west of Auckland. Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala took honors in stage one and had been running third overall until he went off the road and hit a fence on the penultimate stage. The incident cost him over four minutes and sent him down to an overnight position of ninth. Russian Evgeny Novikov was third, 1:31 behind Loeb. Norwegian Petter Solberg was 8.3 seconds behind Novikov. — Reuters
