Day 2am: Loeb's scare

The Frenchman lost the lead to the Peugeot driver after stalling his Citroen Xsara twice and incurring a 10s jump-start penalty on SS9, but he stormed back into the lead on the final stage of the morning, the 36km Kumluca 2 SS11.

Loeb started off well enough this morning with a stage win on SS8 to extend his overall advantage to Gronholm to 14s, but then came the first run through the Kumluca stage. The Frenchman stalled on the startline, nudged the nose of his car over the start line and triggered the beam. By the end of the stage he was 6.9s behind Gronholm.

"After the start," said Loeb, "I didn't drive really well in the first part of the stage. I needed some time to re-concentrate.

"The second stall was a different situation," added Loeb, "I braked quite late and that made me drive through the loose gravel on the sides of the road and I stalled the engine."

Unsurprisingly fired up by this setback, Loeb responded immediately on the last two stages before service, going fastest in both instances and re-establishing a 14s lead over Gronholm who made a mistake on SS11.

Gronholm was a little surprised to find himself in the lead at all this morning. The Finn pushed hard all through Leg One yesterday to remain in the frame, but he clearly couldn't match the ultimate pace of Loeb through this morning's stages.

"We have set some good times and I'm happy to have led," said Gronholm, "I'm expecting a big fight now. I think the repeated stages will be better for us. They should give us more grip and stop the rear of the car sliding all the time, which was a bit of a problem this morning."

Petter Solberg remains in third position overall after yesterday's water splash dramas. The world champion has slipped back from the battling pair up front however and is now a full minute adrift.

Gronholm's team-mate Harri Rovanpera has moved up to fourth place overall. The Finn's consistent pace through the morning, he virtually matched Loeb's fastest SS11 time, meant he was able to take advantage when both Carlos Sainz and Francois Duval hit trouble ahead of him.

Sainz, who won here last year, is reported to be experiencing overheating issues in his Citroen. Duval, who had been enjoying probably his most competitive performance of the season so far for Ford, picked up a differential problem which cost him two minutes and dropped him to sixth place overall.

This has given Mikko Hirvonen, in the second factory Subaru, something to aim for. The Finn is now less than 19s adrift of the ailing Focus. Janne Tuohino remains in eighth position as the leading privateer ahead of Henning Solberg and Antony Warmbold in tenth.