Loeb continues to lead in Spain

The Citroen teammates had to keep their pace up throughout Saturday's stages though, as Gronholm did his best to keep the pressure on the leaders.

"We have to push to keep matching Marcus' times," said Loeb. "He is going really fast, and it's impossible for me to go faster.

"The gap is good, but if I wanted to go any faster I would have to take some risks. We just have to keep this up tomorrow."

Sordo has continued to play the support role to Loeb, and the Spaniard has been able to match the times of his experienced teammate throughout the event so far.

Gronholm admitted that he is trying to keep the pressure up on the leaders, but the Finn is also focused on Francois Duval in fifth, as he has started watching the Belgian's split times in his car.

"I don't think Sebastien will have any problems, but we will keep the pressure on, so they don't feel comfortable," said Gronholm.

"It has been good in the dry today, but we could have done with these stages yesterday. The last stage yesterday destroyed my rally."

Duval is still comfortable in fifth place, while Petter Solberg has a 30-second advantage over Jari-Matti Latvala in seventh.

Chris Atkinson's eighth place remains secure ahead of Xevi Pons, while Henning Solberg completes the top 10 as he builds up experience on Tarmac.

Times after SS13:

Pos   Driver      Car       Time
 1.   Loeb        Citroen   2h28:04.0
 2.   Sordo       Citroen       +13.9
 3.   Gronholm    Ford          +47.4
 4.   Hirvonen    Ford        +1:10.7
 5.   Duval       Citroen     +1:58.0
 6.   P Solberg   Subaru      +2:28.9
 7.   Latvala     Ford        +2:58.9
 8.   Atkinson    Subaru      +3:29.6
 9.   Pons        Subaru      +4:22.1
10.   H Solberg   Ford        +8:01.1