Hirvonen hangs on as Loeb closes in

Ford driver Hirvonen had started the morning with a large lead after his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala chose to slow to secure a better road position for day two, and Loeb was given a 30 second penalty thanks to a starter problem that meant he was late into Friday's penultimate stage.

But with Hirvonen now running first on the dusty roads, he has lost a lot of time to the chasing pack today, allowing Loeb to carve 21 seconds from his lead in just three stages.

"That's not bad," said Loeb after SS8. "It was really good to be second on the road today. In some places I took a lot of time easily, in some places it was impossible. But at the moment I'm really happy. For the first loop, it's really perfect."

Hirvonen felt he needed conditions to be wetter if he was to have a chance of resisting Loeb in the day's two remaining full-length stages.

"I managed to hold him back at the start of the stage where it was a bit more damp but after 15 kilometres it was completely dry and I had no chance," he said. "But we'll see."

Latvala rapidly reclaimed third from Dani Sordo (Citroen) this morning and has closed to within 14 seconds of Hirvonen, having been fastest of all in SS8. Sordo is a further 11 seconds adrift in fourth.

Stobart Ford's Francois Duval continues to run a solitary fifth, while the battle for sixth has seen several changes this morning.

First Urmo Aava (Estonian World Rally Team Citroen) fell behind Petter Solberg (Subaru) after an errant pace note led to a trip off the road in the Possum stage, then the Junior series graduate reclaimed sixth from the former world champion as Solberg struggled for grip and confidence in Franklin.

Suzuki's Per-Gunnar Andersson remains eighth, but his teammate Toni Gardemeister dropped nearly two minutes in SS8 with a hydraulic leak that caused a total loss of brakes. The Finn, who lost ninth to Munchi's Ford driver Federico Villagra, is now attempting a temporary repair to get him through the Mystery Creek superspecial and back to the midday service.

Much further back in the standings, Villagra's teammate Henning Solberg - who tumbled down the order with power steering problems yesterday - benefited from his lowly position in the running order to go fastest of all through Port Waikato.

Leading positions after SS8:

Pos  Driver        Car      Time
 1.  Hirvonen      Ford     2h17:54.6
 2.  Loeb          Citroen   +    6.8
 3.  Latvala       Ford      +   14.0
 4.  Sordo         Citroen   +   25.8
 5.  Duval         Ford      + 1:41.6
 6.  Aava          Citroen   + 2:44.2
 7.  P Solberg     Subaru    + 2:48.6
 8.  Andersson     Suzuki    + 3:44.9
 9.  Villagra      Ford      + 5:45.9
10.  Gardemeister  Suzuki    + 5:58.1