Citroen's Sebastien Loeb has proved to be the quickest Friday monrning on Rally Bulgaria, the seventh round in the 2010 World Rally Championship.

Loeb was the fastest in both stages - 8.6 seconds up on Dani Sordo in the 31.77 kilometre-run through Batak Lake, before beating Petter Solberg by 5.9 seconds in the 27.57 kilometre Belmeken Lake. He now heads into the mid-day service with a 16 second cushion.

Frenchman Loeb is hoping to take another major step towards a seventh successive world rally drivers' championship as he heads into this weekend's Rally of Bulgaria.

Loeb has won three of the six rallies so far this season and has a 38-point lead at the head of the World Rally Championship.

Some 300,000 spectators are expected to turn out to watch Rally Bulgaria, which this year will make its debut in the World Rally Championship.

The rally will take place July 9-11 around Borovets, Bulgaria's oldest winter resort which hosted Alpine ski World Cup races in the 1980s.

Rally Bulgaria is the first of the four tarmac events in the second half of the 2010 WRC calender.

The Rally has total length of 1068,30 km with 14 Special Stages (353,34 km) all in asphalt. Its route is very compact and selective and it passes trough the beautiful Bulgarian scenery.