Gronholm narrowly extends lead

The Finn declared himself happy with his tyre choice as he took the first two stages of the day and extended his lead to just over 10 seconds.

Loeb was quicker on the next two stages though to bring the lead down to 8.5 seconds. He set the fastest time on the longest stage of the entire rally, but by only one tenth of a second as the pair continued to pull away from third-placed Mikko Hirvonen.

Both drivers are surprised by their advantage over the rest of the field, as they are around one second quicker per kilometre than their nearest challengers.

"I didn't expect us to be so much quicker than anyone else," said Gronholm. "There is more gravel here than I thought there would be, but we have the right tyre today so it's good."

Loeb said: "I'm pushing as hard as I did in Japan, we have to go as hard as possible.

"I haven't had any problems, and while I don't enjoy this rally much, I am having fun in the fight with Marcus. That is my only problem." 

Gronholm's teammate is comfortably clear of Manfred Stohl in fourth place, while Chris Atkinson remains fifth for Subaru.

Toni Gardemeister has moved ahead of Xavier Pons in their tight battle for sixth, and has opened up a gap of more than 20 seconds after they started the day almost level. Pons is safe in seventh though, four minutes ahead of the next car.

After a difficult first day, Petter Solberg's recovery charge was all about catching his brother Henning, and as the elder sibling hit problems, the 2003 champion was able to move into eighth.

Henning's difficulties started when his co-driver Cato Menkerud was getting splashed by near-boiling water in the car, and problems with the brakes and differential then hurt his charge even more.

Dani Sordo provided drama on SS10, when he rolled his Citroen but was able to continue, dropping only 45 seconds to the leaders. The Spaniard lies 11th after suffering engine problems yesterday.

Leading positions after Stage 12:

Pos  Driver           Car                 Time
 1.  Gronholm         Ford          2h 36:00.2
 2.  Loeb             Citroen       +      8.5
 3.  Hirvonen         Ford          +   2:41.8
 4.  Stohl            Peugeot       +   3:20.0
 5.  Atkinson         Subaru        +   4:54.1
 6.  Gardemeister     Citroen       +   5:48.1
 7.  Pons             Citroen       +   6:10.9
 8.  Solberg          Subaru        +  10:08.9
 9.  Solberg          Peugeot       +  10:51.7
10.  Wilson           Ford          +  11:48.3