Gronholm closing in on victory

Gronholm now just has six stages - or 90.18 kilometres - to negotiate before he can claim his fourth Swedish Rally victory on his 38th birthday.

Sebastien Loeb won both of the final two stages but was only faster than Gronholm by 2.3 seconds over SS12, the 40km stage of Vergasen 2, and 0.7 seconds through the 2km Hagfors sprint.

Kronos Citroen driver Loeb is 25.1 seconds behind Gronholm now, and with Gronholm's mesmerising pace in the second leg, Loeb will have his work cut out if he is to stop the Finn maintaining his 100 per cent record of victories this season.

The best battle tomorrow could well be over third place. Privateer Mitsubishi Lancer drivers Daniel Carlsson and Gigi Galli have not been far apart throughout the day, continually swapping the position between themselves. Local driver Carlsson currently holds the position, but by just 0.3 seconds.

Mattias Ekstom has moved past Janne Tuohino for fifth place, with a superb fifth fastest time in SS12. However a poor run through the two kilometre Hagfors sprint means he holds just a 0.1-second advantage over Tuohino tonight.

Kristian Sohlberg is comfortable in sixth place heading for his best ever result in a World Championship rally, 44.1 seconds ahead of Tomas Radstrom in eighth.

Henning Solberg's Peugeot 307 was patched up at the lunchtime service break, following his end-to-end roll in SS11. With a new windscreen, the Norwegian managed to finish the stage 11th fastest. Having been running sixth before his roll, he still has an outside chance of scoring points being 48.1 seconds behind Radstrom.

Top 20 after SS13:

Pos  Driver     Make       Time
 1.  Gronholm   Ford       2:21:51.9
 2.  Loeb       Citroen    +    25.1
 3.  Carlsson   Mitsubishi +  2:32.7
 4.  Galli      Mitsubishi +  2:33.0
 5.  Ekstrom    Skoda      +  3:28.1
 6.  Tuohino    Citroen    +  3:28.2
 7.  Sohlberg   Subaru     +  3:42.4
 8.  Radstrom   Subaru     +  4:26.5
 9.  Solberg    Peugeot    +  5:14.6
10.  Katajamaki Ford       +  5:55.0
11.  Pons       Citroen    +  6:17.2
12.  Joge       Peugeot    +  7:14.6
13.  Kopecky    Skoda      +  9:31.4
14.  Atkinson   Subaru     + 10:28.3
15.  Solberg    Subaru     + 11:10.8
16.  Hanninen   Mitsubishi + 11:15.3
17.  Hirvonen   Ford       + 11:22.6
18.  Wilson     Ford       + 11:37.6
19.  Schie      Ford       + 12:56.7
20.  Sordo      Citroen    + 13:03.3