Hirvonen pulls away in Turkey

Having swiftly regained the lead thanks to Ford's tactic of slowing in yesterday's final stage to ensure a better road position for this morning, Hirvonen contined to extend his advantage in the second of today's three loops of stages.

He heads for the next service break 12 seconds ahead of Latvala, with Loeb now 34.8 seconds adrift.

"It's getting there slowly," said Hirvonen after SS13. "I've been really struggling with my brakes but luckily they lasted through the whole stage and it was a good time."

Latvala has continued to lose time to his rally-leading teammate, partly due to his more difficult road position as he is running third in the order, but also because his driving style is wearing his tyres out faster than Hirvonen's.

"The front tyres are completely finished," Latvala admitted. "Maybe my driving style is a bit hard, but at least we do the times, and that's the main thing."

Ford no longer hold a one-two-three in the rally, as Stobart driver Gigi Galli lost four minutes in SS13 due to a loss of power and fell to eighth.

The problem had begun in the previous stage, allowing Loeb to move up to third. He managed to minimise the time loss to Loeb in SS12 and was faster than Latvala through the stage, but struggled more in Silyon, which was being used for the second time today.

"The second pass was worse than the first," Loeb said. "The little cars behind left a lot of dust on the road, so for me it was very slippery and I had to make a new line, but after one or two cars the line is good. Again, I couldn't do better."

However, Loeb has not yet conceded the rally, and when asked if he was frustrated by his situation, he replied: "Yeah, a bit, but it's not finished."

Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford) is now fourth, while the battle between Petter Solberg (Subaru) and Dani Sordo (Citroen) in fifth and sixth has got ever closer, with Sordo now just three seconds behind.

Leading positions after SS13:

Pos  Driver      Car      Time
 1.  Hirvonen    Ford     3h13:20.1
 2.  Latvala     Ford      +   12.0
 3.  Loeb        Citroen   +   34.8
 4.  H Solberg   Ford      + 1:25.8
 5.  P Solberg   Subaru    + 1:59.5
 6.  Sordo       Citroen   + 2:02.8
 7.  Wilson      Ford      + 2:53.9
 8.  Galli       Ford      + 4:28.1
 9.  Rautenbach  Citroen   + 5:13.4
10.  Villagra    Ford      + 5:19.8