Hirvonen maintains lead in Japan

The Ford driver led throughout Saturday's stages, and was handed a 50-second advantage when second and third-placed Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Stobart Ford) both crashed out in SS13 - Loeb due to a misread pace note, and Latvala when distracted by a developing transmission problem.

With Marcus Gronholm having already crashed out on leg one, Hirvonen looked set for an easy run to the third win of his World Rally Championship career. But Citroen number two Sordo was buoyed by the retirements ahead and began gaining on Hirvonen - reducing the gap to 35 seconds with a stage win in SS17 Niueo.

Hirvonen then edged away again to end the leg with a 38.2-second lead. Having seen both title contenders get caught out by the treacherous conditions, Hirvonen said he was taking nothing for granted.

"I don't want to start thinking we've won the rally, so we just need to concentrate, try to keep everything together and keep the car on the road," he said. "It's certainly not easy like this."

Sordo's burst of speed has left Henning Solberg in a solitary third place, and the Stobart Ford driver decided early today that he would settle for third rather than risking retirement by pushing to match the fast-disappearing Spaniard.

Munchi's Ford driver Luis Perez Companc continues to hold fourth although Solberg's teammate Matthew Wilson has edged closer to him during today's stages.

Both are on course for career-best results, but could come under threat from Manfred Stohl, who is back up to speed after falling back from fourth to sixth due to problems with his OMV Kronos Citroen's clutch before the lunchtime service.

Companc's teammate Federico Villagra maintains seventh, with local Group N driver Katsuhiko Taguchi on course for the final point.

Petter Solberg won three of this afternoon's four full-length stages as he continued his recovery drive after falling to 65th when he had to retire his Subaru with gearbox problems on Friday. The Norweigan has now moved back up to 26th, but is still 12 minutes away from the final points-scoring position.

Leading positions after leg two:

Pos  Driver         Car         Time
 1.  Hirvonen       Ford        2h26:28.9
 2.  Sordo          Citroen     +    38.2
 3.  H Solberg      Ford        +  1:51.7
 4.  Perez Companc  Ford        +  5:05.6
 5.  Wilson         Ford        +  5:27.3
 6.  Stohl          Citroen     +  5:59.7
 7.  Villagra       Ford        +  7:26.6
 8.  Taguchi        Mitsubishi  + 13:50.4
 9.  Pozzo          Mitsubishi  + 14:47.1
10.  Kamada         Subaru      + 16:29.6