Loeb pulls away in Portugal

The world champion completed a clean sweep of today's stages by winning all three parts of this afternoon's repeated loop.

"We've had a great day," said Loeb. "The car is going perfectly. Two times, I think we had the best tyre choice. I could push at the maximum all day."

Gronholm agreed that tyre choice had been critical once again.

"He has hard tyres and he made the right choice because mine are completely gone," the championship leader lamented after SS11. "We are always wrong..."

Tyres also influenced the battle for the final podium spot, with Mikko Hirvonen and Petter Solberg both struggling to keep their rubber intact. Hirvonen proved slightly more successful and will start the final leg 13 seconds clear of the Subaru.

Dani Sordo remains fifth despite a bizarre scare in SS11 when the doors of his Citroen C4 refused to stay closed. Some improvised repairs before the next stage solved the problem.

Sixth-placed Jari-Matti Latvala continued to set top six stages times throughout the afternoon, but could not gain much ground on Sordo.

"I have to respect how these top drivers are going, because I can't understand how they can do it," Latvala admitted. "Maybe it's experience, but you need to have something special to make a fastest stage time."

After lacking confidence earlier in the weekend, Henning Solberg picked up speed this afternoon and has now passed Daniel Carlsson for seventh place.

"We've done very good work with the car, and it's just small measures to get the car right for me," said Solberg. "I cannot go 100 percent because I don't feel 100 percent confident, but maybe 85 percent. It's coming."

Carlsson was one of the many drivers unhappy with their tyre choice on the now mostly dry stages.

"We probably cut the tyres a bit too much," Carlsson reckoned. "I was sliding a lot. I tried to go as quick as I can - not at the limit, but close."

Gigi Galli remains ninth and confused by his inability to match the frontrunners, while the recovering Manfred Stohl pushed Andreas Mikkelson out of the top ten in SS12.

Standings after SS13:

Pos  Driver    Make     Time
 1.  Loeb      Citroen  3h00:25.5
 2.  Gronholm  Ford     +    40.5
 3.  Hirvonen  Ford     +  1:57.3
 4.  Solberg   Subaru   +  2:10.3
 5.  Sordo     Citroen  +  3:59.4
 6.  Latvala   Ford     +  4:50.2
 7.  Solberg   Ford     +  6:49.0
 8.  Carlsson  Citroen  +  6:55.6
 9.  Galli     Citroen  +  8:12.8
10.  Stohl     Citroen  + 11:20.6

All Timing Unofficial