Day 2: Loeb in charge

Loeb won three of the four stages run before service and only lost time on SS9 when he stalled his Citroen Xsara twice and incurred a 10s jump-start penalty. He then took the second and third fastest times on SS12 and SS13 to give himself a perfect platform heading into the final day.

Gronholm meanwhile lost two seconds to the flying Frenchman in the 16.45km Chimera SS12, coming in third fastest behind Petter Solberg and Loeb. Then on the day's final stage he was a mere tenth faster than Loeb to go second quickest, again behind Solberg. At this stage of the event however it seems Loeb has the edge in terms of speed over the 307.

Solberg, who is third overall, was delighted to have won the last two stages of the day, but has more or less given up on winning. He dropped away from contention yesterday when he lost 45s after damaging his Subaru in a water splash and has never recovered.

"We were going well on the more twisty sections, however on the fast stuff it seemed like we were losing a bit of time," Solberg said. "I feel I'm driving even quicker than I was in Greece and Cyprus, but still I can't make up the time. I've got a few ideas of a few small changes that I hope will make the times improve."

Citroen driver Carlos Sainz has returned to fourth position overall having overcome his overheating problems at the service. Last year's winner lost the position to Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera this morning, but the Finn has now hit problems of his own.

Rovanpera's pace through the first four stages of the day was superb and his consistency provided him the opportunity to pounce when other's hit trouble, but a terminal gearbox problem appears to have relegated him to the ranks of SupeRally runners along with Ford's Markko Martin and Mitsubishi's Gilles Panizzi.

Belgium's Francois Duval begun the day fourth, hot on the tail of the world champion. He excelled in the Focus, setting second best times on both the first two stages to close within 10 seconds of Solberg in the Subaru. But on SS10 he started experiencing transmission problems.

"About five kilometres after the start I lost drive to the right front wheel," said Duval. "We tried to make repairs after the finish, but the same thing happened again just after the start of the next stage. There was nothing I could do apart from lock the differentials and drive as fast as I could. I feel a little demoralized because everything was going so well this morning."

Duval is still fifth but must keep an eye on sixth-placed Mikko Hirvonen in the second Subaru. Janne Tuohino has moved up to seventh with Rovanpera's demise, while Henning Solberg is now in the points. Focus drivers Antony Warmbold and Serkan Yazici fill out the top ten.