Brake problem delays Loeb

"The pedal was sometimes long and sometimes okay," he told autosport.com.

"As soon as I started having problems I backed off. I didn't want to take any chances."

Loeb fell six seconds behind Marcus Gronholm in SS1, but was able to stop and bleed the brakes on the following road section.

Although this cured the problem, Loeb dropped another 1.2 seconds to Gronholm through the next stage.

Loeb was not the only leading contender to have braking difficulties in Querol 1, where drivers spend a lot of time left foot braking through long corners.

Petter Solberg also reported problems with his brakes, while Francois Duval had to drive the majority of the stage without any stopping power at all.

The Skoda driver, who had been fastest in Thursday's shakedown, lost all his brake fluid 10 kilometres into the stage.

A leak was discovered on the front left caliper. This was blocked off for SS2, leaving Duval to contest the stage with only three brakes working. He headed for service in 12th place, 53.4 seconds behind the leader.