Day 3am: Loeb out front
Citroen's Sebastien Loeb has maintained his lead after the first three stages of the final leg of this weekend's Rallye Deutschland. Ford's Francois Duval has extended his lead over third-placed Carlos Sainz (Citroen) and is chasing Loeb hard with just four stages left to run
Having taken second spot from Sainz on the final stage of leg two on Saturday, Duval set his sights on the Spaniard's Citroen team-mate taking 10s out of Loeb's lead on the first stage - SS18 - won by Peugeot's Freddy Loix.
The charge continued on SS19 with Duval taking the stage win. The Belgian only gained 3.3s on Loeb, however, the Frenchman was third on the stage obviously upping his pace slightly as he feels Duval's ever-increasing pressure from behind.
Loeb continued his pace on SS20 setting the second quickest time behind Peugeot's Cedric Robert while Duval could only manage the sixth quickest time and lost 3.3s on the ground he gained over Loeb.
Going into SS21 Loeb has a lead of 44.6s over Duval while the Belgian is 17s clear of Sainz in third spot. Markko Martin holds onto a safe fourth spot, a massive 2m26s off Loeb's pace.
Robert and Loix are having their own private Peugeot battle in fifth and sixth with 15s separating the two. Skoda's Toni Gardemeister is seventh in the Skoda Fabia ahead of the Subaru Impreza WRC, who rounds out the top eight.
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