Hirvonen reclaims New Zealand lead

Loeb had slowed and dropped from first to third at the end of day two to try and ensure a better road position for today's stages. But rather than benefiting from a cleaner surface and closing on the leading Fords in SS12, Loeb had a spin and fell to fourth place behind his Citroen teammate Dani Sordo.

"It was on a long, long left. I went a bit on the wrong camber, so when I pushed, the car was spinning, spinning, spinning and I couldn't stop it," Loeb explained after SS12. "I had to get reverse and I lost a lot of time."

Hirvonen had expected Loeb to be putting him under pressure for second, but instead the Ford driver was free to close in on his rally-leading teammate Jari-Matti Latvala, who had inherited the lead amid Saturday afternoon's tactical shuffling.

The gap between the two Fords was down to three seconds by the end of SS12, and Hirvonen duly swept ahead in the following stage, heading for service with a 7.1 second lead.

"It's such a big difference not cleaning the road, even with only one car in front of me," said Hirvonen, who had lost a lot of time running first on Saturday.

Latvala agreed that being first into the stages was a big disadvantage, but with this morning's two stages repeated this afternoon and therefore already cleaned of loose gravel, he is optimistic that he can hold off the Citroens after service.

"All these stages have been very difficult," Latvala said. "Whaanga Coast for the first 15-20 kilometres was alright, then in the slower parts through the trees it was really hard. This would be a great result, but now we really need to push. If I can get a good rhythm, I believe we have a chance to stay ahead."

Loeb's spin left him fourth, 17.9 seconds behind Hirvonen, and 8.7 seconds adrift of his teammate Sordo, who has closed rapidly on Latvala this morning and is now just 1.8 seconds behind.

The reigning champion admitted that he had been surprised by the Fords' pace this morning.

"For sure it's not going like we expected," said Loeb. "In this stage, we couldn't go faster than Mikko. I tried hard, but there was nothing I could do. I can try, but it will not be easy. I've been flat-out this morning and the times were not good, so I don't know."

Further back, Stobart Ford's Francois Duval remains fifth, with Petter Solberg (Subaru) back up to sixth after Urmo Aava spun his semi-works Citroen in the day's first stage. The Suzukis and Federico Villagra (Munchi's Ford) complete the top ten.

Leading positions after SS13:

Pos  Driver        Car           Time
 1.  Hirvonen      Ford     3h27:22.7
 2.  Latvala       Ford      +    7.1
 3.  Sordo         Citroen   +    8.9
 4.  Loeb          Citroen   +   17.6
 5.  Duval         Ford      + 1:48.5
 6.  P Solberg     Subaru    + 2:45.0
 7.  Aava          Citroen   + 3:09.3
 8.  Andersson     Suzuki    + 4:52.8
 9.  Gardemeister  Suzuki    + 7:11.8
10.  Villagra      Ford      + 7:30.2