Day 2pm: Loeb in command

Loeb still has to finish the event, which given the dreadful driving conditions today, is no mean feat, but he has stretched his overall advantage to 55s over new second-placed man Francois Duval. The Ford driver took two stage wins this afternoon to move ahead of Carlos Sainz.

Duval, in search of his fourth podium finish of the year, passed Loeb's Citroen team-mate Sainz on the final 6.23km spectator stage at the end of the day having spent leg two relentlessly chasing him down. Duval's has been the quicker of the two Ford Focus cars all weekend and the Belgian looks to have the legs of Spanish double- world champion heading into the final day.

"The stages were difficult and we had a couple of lucky escapes," said Duval. "I hit a mound of grass on SS13 and damaged the rear left of the car. Then on the last stage of the group I slid off the road and hit some trees, again with the rear left. We were lucky to escape the second incident.

"Tomorrow's stages are really nice to drive and again they are similar to those in Belgium. I have been driving at maximum pace for the last two days and will do the same again. I have to try and keep Carlos behind me. I have a better road position because I will start the stages after him, so it should be exciting."

Certainly it seems he has enough in the bag to beat his team-mate Markko Martin who is more than 1m20s behind in fourth. The Estonian complained earlier about the state of the roads after the rain, and has freely admitted that he will pleased just to make the finish without incident.

Peugeot 307 asphalt drivers Cedric Robert and Freddy Loix have both been impressive today with a stage win apiece this afternoon, Robert's on SS17 - the last of the day. Their performances were good enough for fifth and sixth overall by the end of leg two. Their climb through the field has been aided by the demise of Solberg, who rolled his Subaru on SS12 (forcing the organisers to cancel the stage) and Panizzi's early morning crash in the Mitsubishi.

It's another disappointing retirement for Solberg, and one he can ill-afford having not finished in the previous two rallies in Finland and Argentina. His points deficit to Loeb will be 32 if the Frenchman wins tomorrow and there are just six events left on the calendar, but Solberg is not giving up. "There's a long way to go in the championship and we'll be back again in Japan," he said. "We'll be putting on a good show on the gravel, so just watch us go, as we'll be going for the win."

Skoda is having another good rally as the wet conditions play into the strengths of the Fabia. Indeed it scored its first ever stage win when Armin Schwarz went fastest on SS13. The German however is only 13th overall while team-mate Toni Gardemeister is an excellent 7th, ahead of French Championship leader and former Formula 1 driver Stephane Sarrazin.