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Loeb pulls further ahead

Sebastien Loeb has continued to push hard on the second afternoon of the Rally Mexico and now leads by over a minute with only the four Sunday stages to go

Despite suggesting at the start of the loop that he would drive conservatively to try and avoid the pitfalls presented by the increasingly rocky road surfaces, Loeb won two of this afternoon's three full-length stages and was second quickest through the other.

"I was really in a good rhythm and the car is very good in these conditions, it has good grip in very fast places," said Loeb.

"I was very confident and I pushed hard, but I didn't have any moments. So I drive how I feel and now we have a good gap. I think tomorrow maybe we will start to slow down a bit."

Loeb's relentless performance this afternoon has also put paid to any hopes that Marcus Gronholm's leg two resurgence might carry him all the way to the Citroen's tail. The championship leader now trails Loeb by just over a minute, and knows that only a quirk of fate will bring him victory.

"I can't catch him of course, but okay, I'll keep going and see if he has any problems," said Gronholm. "That's the only hope for us."

Mikko Hirvonen hoped to match his flying teammate's progress, having started the loop just 0.1 seconds behind Gronholm. But he was perplexed after losing another 1.8 seconds to the senior Ford driver in Ibarilla 2.

"He's coming really fast and I can't go any faster," said Hirvonen. "No problems, the car is working perfectly, we just need to drive it..."

Unfortunately Hirvonen then spun early in SS13 and lost half a minute rejoining and then struggling with punctures sustained in the incident. But he only relinquished one place - to Dani Sordo - for Hirvonen's rally-long sparring partner Chris Atkinson had already dropped 20 seconds and two positions as a boost problem developed on the new Subaru.

Hirvonen immediately retaliated and retook third in SS14, but then fleetingly, for Sordo was quicker than the Ford through both superspecial runs and the positions swapped again.

"I'm happy with the car, the traction and with the stage," said Sordo after the superspecial. "But tomorrow is a very hard day for everybody, so we'll see. It's not bad, I have more confidence with the car now."

With Sordo, Hirvonen and Atkinson still covered by a dozen seconds at the end of the day, the battle for the final podium place will remain hard-fought on Sunday.

Having struggled for traction today, Manfred Stohl (Kronos Citroen) is now a very solitary sixth, well clear of Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala.

Matt Wilson remains in eighth, but was troubled by a possible breakage at the rear of the car that was causing some alarming handling quirks on his Ford this afternoon, and then a gearbox issue in the superspecial. This might have put him under pressure from Gareth MacHale, had the Irish driver not come to a halt with mechanical problems in SS13.

However, if Wilson's problems continue then his points-scoring position may come within range of his teammate Henning Solberg, who has made steady progress back up the order since rolling in the very first stage of the rally.

Leading positions after SS16:

Pos  Driver     Make              Time
 1.  Loeb       Citroen     3h 08:27.0
 2.  Gronholm   Ford          + 1:00.8
 3.  Sordo      Citroen       + 1:35.3
 4.  Hirvonen   Ford          + 1:38.1
 5.  Atkinson   Subaru        + 1:47.8
 6.  Stohl      Citroen       + 2:41.8
 7.  Latvala    Ford          + 3:50.4
 8.  Wilson     Ford         + 10:21.5
 9.  H Solberg  Ford         + 13:10.0
10.  Higgins    Mitsubishi   + 16:42.0

 

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