Citroen pull away as Hirvonen fades

Hirvonen had been attempting to keep second-placed Dani Sordo in sight, and was matching the Spaniard initially. But then in SS10 the Ford driver's power steering failed and he began to fall away from the Citroens - completing the morning 77 seconds behind Sordo and two and a half minutes behind leader Sebastien Loeb.

"Unfortunately the gap is now too big to try to catch them by driving. It's a real shame," said Hirvonen. "We don't have any power steering. It would be okay, but in all these watersplahes the car does such sudden movements that there's no way you can catch it. It's tricky."

Sordo was pleased that Hirvonen's challenge had faded, but wasn't taking second place for granted given the continued torrential rain in Ireland.

"The pressure is off, but it's very important to stay concentrated because it's really difficult to drive now in these conditions," said Sordo.

"The problem is the roads change a lot - in some parts there is a lot of grip and it's really nice to drive, and then one corner after there's big aquaplaning."

Loeb took all three stage wins this morning and said he planned to continue pushing even though he was now over a minute in front.

"I've had a good lead since yesterday evening so I'm just trying to keep concentrated," said the world champion.

"This stage was very tricky, with a lot of water, but I've kept a good pace because I think if I go off the pace I will not be concentrated enough. But at the moment it's going well, no problems."

Henning Solberg remains fourth for Stobart Ford, despite his distaste for "dangerous" amount of water in some of the stages, but he could soon come under pressure from Chris Atkinson (Citroen Junior), who is now 47 seconds adrift and gaining, despite being keen to stay out of trouble after his incident-packed Friday.

"I just want to make sure I get the car back to the guys without them having to repair it for once," he said.

Atkinson was the only Citroen Junior driver to complete the loop unscathed, as his teammates Conrad Rautenbach and Sebastien Ogier both went off the road in SS9.

While Rautenbach had to retire from his excellent fifth place, Ogier was able to get his damaged car to the stage finish and has already reclaimed seventh from local privateer Gareth Machale, whose Ford developed gearbox problems this morning.

The Citroen crashes mean that Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson now completes the top six, and Ford's third factory driver Khalid Al Qassimi has moved back into the top ten.

Leading positions after SS11:

Pos  Driver             Car      Time
 1.  Sebastien Loeb     Citroen  1h44:53.7
 2.  Dani Sordo         Citroen   + 1:12.2
 3.  Mikko Hirvonen     Ford      + 2:29.2
 4.  Henning Solberg    Ford      + 5:15.0
 5.  Chris Atkinson     Citroen   + 6:02.0
 6.  Matthew Wilson     Ford      + 7:46.5
 7.  Sebastien Ogier    Citroen   + 8:13.4
 8.  Gareth Machale     Ford      + 9:04.6
 9.  Eamonn Boland      Subaru    + 9:36.5
10.  Khalid Al Qassimi  Ford      + 9:52.3