Loeb closing on rally victory

The champion drove carefully through the first two stages of the final day and retains a 29 second advantage over title rival Marcus Gronholm.

The Ford driver is still pushing hard to fend off the resurgent Francois Duval, who won both this morning's stages and is still within 9.9 seconds of the championship leader.

At the start of the day Mikko Hirvonen hoped he could reclaim third from Duval, but he has now admitted defeat after a tyre gamble failed.

"There was a small chance of rain or drizzle so I chose a very soft tyre, but it was dry," Hirvonen said, who is now 27 seconds adrift of the OMV Citroen driver. "The fight is over now."

Toni Gardemeister has retaken fifth from Jan Kopecky in the rally-long battle between the two privateers. Petter Solberg is closing on them both, with just 13 seconds now covering fifth to seventh places.

It has been a bad morning for the rest of the Subaru team, with engine problems stopping Xevi Pons in SS15 and Chris Atkinson crashing near the end of SS16. Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala therefore moves back into the points.

Pos  Driver        Car           Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  3h06:31.4
 2.  Gronholm      Ford     +    29.0
 3.  Duval         Citroen  +    38.9
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford     +  1:06.2
 5.  Gardemeister  Citroen  +  2:51.6
 6.  Kopecky       Skoda    +  2:57.8
 7.  P Solberg     Subaru   +  3:05.4
 8.  Latvala       Ford     +  5:15.8
 9.  Wilson        Ford     + 10:05.5
10.  Wilks         Ford     + 19:21.1