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Loeb leads as Latvala gets puncture

Sebastien Loeb is back in the lead of the Rally of Great Britain after Jari-Matti Latvala lost a minute with a puncture on today's final stage

Ford driver Latvala has been holding a 4.5-second cushion over Loeb prior to Myherin, but has now fallen to sixth place, 1m07s off the lead, having clipped a bank and damaged the tyre.

Just two stages earlier, Loeb had been down in fourth, having struggled on the Hafren stage due to the amount of rain water that had filled the ruts created by the cars on this morning's first pass.

But the Citroen number one quickly recovered, winning both the Sweet Lamb and Myherin stages to reclaim the lead following Latvala's delay.

Loeb's nearest challenger is now Petter Solberg, with the Norwegian Citroen privateer just 1.8s behind the world champion despite being hampered by gearshift problems this afternoon.

Sebastien Ogier is also within 3.6s of the lead in the second works Citroen, having brought himself back into the lead fight by going quickest on Hafren.

Mikko Hirvonen is a frustrated fourth, 42.2s off the pace and baffled that despite feeling he was driving well, he has lost time to the leaders all day.

He is 6.7s ahead of Dani Sordo, who spun his Citroen Junior car on Hafren.

Guest driver Andreas Mikkelsen (Czech Skoda) leads the S2000 class by half a minute over Jari Ketomaa. Points leader Xevi Pons is struggling for pace in fourth, but that position would still give him the championship ahead of Ketomaa, while third title contender Patrik Sandell has fallen to seventh after losing his power steering.

Armindo Araujo is on course for another Production title, as he currently runs second behind Ott Tanak. Araujo's championship rival Patrik Flodin led until damaging his steering and dropping to third.

Pos  Driver              Car        Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen  1h15m34.6s
 2.  Petter Solberg      Citroen      + 1.8s
 3.  Sebastien Ogier     Citroen      + 3.6s
 4.  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford        + 42.2s
 5.  Dani Sordo          Citroen     + 48.9s
 6.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford      + 1m07.0s
 7.  Henning Solberg     Ford      + 2m30.5s
 8.  Matthew Wilson      Ford      + 3m19.3s
 9.  Mads Ostberg        Subaru    + 3m38.3s
10.  Kimi Raikkonen      Citroen   + 4m27.1s

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