Loeb leads into final day in Portugal
Sebastien Loeb will take a comfortable lead into the final day of the Rally of Portugal after claiming another three stage victories this afternoon
The world champion's peerless speed on day two has seen him turn a 20-second morning deficit into a 27s advantage over main rival Mikko Hirvonen with four full-length stages and a superspecial remaining on Sunday.
"A very good day for me," said Loeb, "we were pushing hard all day and the feeling with the car is very good.
"What's important is that we have a good lead for tomorrow. Road position can play a big part tomorrow, but I'm very happy with today - I couldn't have expected better. I've tried to increase my lead as much as possible."
Hirvonen said he had done his utmost to keep in touch with Loeb today.
"I did all I could on this stage," he said at the end of SS13. "If Sebastien goes faster, then he goes faster. There is nothing more I can do."
He has not yet conceded defeat and hopes to strike back when Loeb is first on the road on Sunday, provided he is not hampered too much by dust from the Citroen ahead.
"Hopefully there is no problem with dust or anything tomorrow morning," said Hirvonen. "It's still quite a long day. I'll try, there's no other option."
Dani Sordo is now nearly a minute adrift of Loeb in the second Citroen, but still holds third with a comfortable margin over fourth-placed Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen).
Although Matthew Wilson finished the day in fifth, he is coming under increasing pressure from his Stobart Ford team-mate Henning Solberg. The Norwegian has reduced Wilson's advantage to just 0.9s.
A close battle has also developed for seventh, with Citroen Junior's Evgeny Novikov just 0.8s ahead of Adapta Subaru's Mads Ostberg as both recover from their earlier problems.
Leading positions after day two:
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 2h56m15.6s 2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 26.8s 3. Dani Sordo Citroen + 56.4s 4. Petter Solberg Citroen + 1m59.6s 5. Matthew Wilson Ford + 3m22.9s 6. Henning Solberg Ford + 3m23.8s 7. Evgeny Novikov Citroen + 4m59.4s 8. Mads Ostberg Subaru + 5m00.2s 9. Conrad Rautenbach Citroen + 6m50.6s 10. Federico Villagra Ford + 9m35.1s
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