Gronholm maintains Sweden lead

The Ford driver responded to Sebastien Loeb's stage victory in SS9 by winning the longest stage of the rally, and over the course of the morning the world champion was only able to close up by 0.6 seconds.

"Sebastien is making me work," said Gronholm. "He is crazy and he wants to win, but I won't give up."

The Finn then admitted that he was probably 'crazy' as well after his SS10 victory.

Loeb was pleased with his performance, but the Frenchman believes it will be a tall order to beat Gronholm this weekend.

"Sweden is like a home event for Marcus so it's not going to be easy," he said. "He likes it a lot and he really wants to win.

"I tried really hard, it was a good drive," he added. "I made no mistakes, and sometimes it was on the limit."

Petter Solberg lost 13 minutes when he got his Subaru stuck in a ditch halfway through SS10, and the off cost him any chance of a good result on the event after he competed for the lead on the first day.

Solberg's problems promoted his brother Henning into third place, but the Norwegian cannot relax as Mikko Hirvonen is now just 0.3 seconds behind.

"I went off two times so my time is ok," Solberg said  after SS10. "This is a long rally and it is easy to go off here. I tried my best and I'm happy."

Hirvonen was disappointed with his pace notes in the morning, as he felt that they were too cautious and he believed that he could have gone quicker.

Toni Gardemeister is less than six seconds behind the new battle for third place, and the Mitsubishi driver was faster than both of those ahead of him in the longest stage of the rally.

Daniel Carlsson remains reasonably safe in sixth place ahead of Chris Atkinson, who initially moved into the points at the expense of Manfred Stohl before Solberg's off.

Stohl lost time with a brake problem, as his brakes were sticking during both stages this morning, but he remains in the points ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala and Mads Ostberg.

Pos  Driver        Make          Time
 1.  Gronholm      Ford          1:28:57.9
 2.  Loeb          Citroen       +    10.5
 3.  Solberg       Ford          +    46.9
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford          +    47.2
 5.  Gardemeister  Mitsubishi    +    52.9
 6.  Carlsson      Citroen       +  1:26.7
 7.  Atkinson      Subaru        +  1:39.3
 8.  Stohl         Citroen       +  1:43.0
 9.  Latvala       Ford          +  2:22.8
10.  Ostberg       Subaru        +  3:40.8