Loeb hangs on to lead after day two

Latvala has been fastest in every stage today, as he made the most of a favourable road position to mount a comeback charge following the error that cost him one and a half minutes on Friday morning. He closed on Hirvonen throughout today, before ending the leg on an absolutely equal time to his teammate.

Despite seeing his lead reduced to 29.4 seconds, and knowing that he must run first on the road again tomorrow, Loeb remains optimistic that he can resist the Fords and take his third win of the season.

"It's what we tried to have," said Loeb when he learned that his advantage was still half a minute. "I think it's the minimum we need for clearing the road.

"I tried as hard as possible today but we lost a lot on the loose gravel. The feeling is difficult with the car, but we'll see tomorrow."

Latvala will run second on the road ahead of Hirvonen tomorrow as he was fastest on the rally's opening stage - the method used to resolve such ties. Despite his incredible day, he remained slightly frustrated about some small errors in SS12.

"It was a good day, but I was a little bit disappointed in myself on the last stage," Latvala said. "We went wide and we lost some time. Maybe we would have been able to do an even better time. No tactics this time, I've just tried to drive as fast as I can."

Loeb's teammate Dani Sordo, who has run second on the road all day, has also struggled with the road conditions, and has now fallen to fifth behind Gigi Galli (Stobart Ford). Like Latvala, Galli sustained a puncture after a minor error on Friday, before setting a series of very rapid times today.

Subaru's Chris Atkinson completes the current top six, but he has now lost touch with the leading pack.

Henning Solberg (Munchi's Ford) has retained seventh place despite pressure from semi-works Citroen driver Urmo Aava throughout the day, with the Estonian's charge slightly interrupted when he made an error in SS11.

Having run trouble-free for the first half of the rally, Suzuki suffered a disappointment when ninth-placed Toni Gardemeister stopped in SS11 with rear suspension damage.

His teammate Per-Gunnar Andersson is still running however, with Gardemeister's retirement elevating the recovering Petter Solberg (Subaru) back into the top ten after his morning tyre problems.

Leading positions after day two:

Pos  Driver     Car      Time
 1.  Loeb       Citroen  2h59:21.5
 2.  Latvala    Ford      +   29.4
 =   Hirvonen   Ford      +   29.4
 4.  Galli      Ford      + 1:17.7
 5.  Sordo      Citroen   + 1:31.3
 6.  Atkinson   Subaru    + 2:42.1
 7.  H Solberg  Ford      + 4:29.0
 8.  Aava       Citroen   + 4:34.5
 9.  Andersson  Suzuki    + 5:45.9
10.  P Solberg  Subaru    + 7:29.2