Loeb dominates Friday stages

The world champion's cause was aided by a differential problem that hampered his Citroen teammate Dani Sordo for much of the afternoon. The Spaniard lost 35 seconds to Loeb as he struggled through today's second loop.

"We don't know what's happened, we might have broken the differential," said Sordo after SS8. "I don't know exactly, but the car only had two-wheel drive."

Loeb was delighted to end the first day in such a strong position and already has a fifth Monte Carlo win in his sights.

"The car is perfect, and so is the feeling," he said. "I'm really happy at the moment. There's not much to say, I'm just trying to push and keep a rhythm in the car. No problems."

Sordo's problems have revived Mikko Hirvonen's hopes of fighting for second place. The Ford driver is now within 26 seconds of the Citroen.

"I'm definitely going to try and keep the pressure on tomorrow," said Hirvonen.

The rest of the works Ford team had mixed fortunes during the afternoon, with Khalid Al Qassimi crashing out of 10th place near the end of St Pierreville 2, but Jari-Matti Latvala climbing back up to ninth position as he continued his recovery drive following his SS1 puncture.

The fight for fourth is still the closest contest among the frontrunners. A second-fastest time in SS6 brought Stobart Ford's Francois Duval to within three seconds of fourth-placed Chris Atkinson (Subaru), but the Australian then set top three times in the next two stages and has restored a 14-second advantage.

Atkinson's works Subaru teammate Petter Solberg has fallen away from this battle after his Impreza lapsed onto three cylinders in St Pierreville 2 then stalled at the start of the next stage.

Gigi Galli (Stobart Ford) and privateer Peugeot driver Jean-Marie Cuoq continue to hold seventh and eighth places, with Cuoq now within seven seconds of Galli after the Ford developed power steering problems.

The chasing Latvala still has another one and a half minutes to make up before he can become involved in this fight.

Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg showed much improved pace during the afternoon to move up to 10th, with 11th-placed Per-Gunnar Andersson now the best of the Suzuki drivers after teammate Toni Gardemeister continued to grapple with a lack of power.

Leading positions after day two:

Pos  Driver     Car      Time
 1.  Loeb       Citroen  1h36:44.9
 2.  Sordo      Citroen   +   56.6
 3.  Hirvonen   Ford      + 1:22.8
 4.  Atkinson   Subaru    + 2:28.6
 5.  Duval      Ford      + 2:42.6
 6.  P Solberg  Subaru    + 3:09.6
 7.  Galli      Ford      + 5:21.1
 8.  Cuoq       Peugeot   + 5:27.9
 9.  Latvala    Ford      + 6:55.8
10.  H Solberg  Ford      + 6:58.7