Loeb continues to dominate in Spain

The Kronos Citroen driver extended his lead to 34.4 seconds by going quickest through the final stage of leg two.

"It was a good day," said Loeb. "A lot of gravel on the road, so not so nice.

"But I keep my lead for the moment, and that's the most important thing.

"Dani Sordo is pushing hard and being very, very fast. So it's not so easy to keep first place. But we will try to do it."

Reigning Junior WRC champion Sordo looks set to take his first overall podium on home ground. Driving a privately entered Citroen Xsara WRC, the local hero has kept Loeb in sight throughout leg two, and set the fastest time in SS10.

Citroen no longer holds a 1-2-3, with Loeb's team-mate Xavier Pons having crashed out in Deusaigues 2.

The accident elevated former Skoda works driver Alex Bengue, now driving an independent Peugeot 307, to a potential podium place. However he is primarily focused on improving the handling of the difficult car, and says he is not yet thinking about taking third place.

"It's unbelievable, but I have to forget it," said Bengue. "It was not the most important thing today.

"We have learnt a lot of good things about the car and my driving is better now. We have found some very interesting things to improve the set-up but we have to continue in this way."

Bengue looks unlikely to hold onto third as the recovering Marcus Gronholm is now just 4.1 seconds behind.

"It's close, but there's a long way to go," Gronholm said. "I'm happy with the car and the times are good, now we've just got to get to the end and try to be third."

Skoda privateer Jan Kopecky continues to impress in fifth place, over a minute ahead of Francois Duval's First Racing Fabia WRC.

Subaru's problems continued during the afternoon. A switch to a harder compound cured some of Petter Solberg's tyre worries, but he is now nearly four minutes behind the leaders in seventh. His team-mate Stephane Sarrazin is eighth, and a little happier with his set-up.

Third driver Chris Atkinson dropped to 11th after a spin in SS11.

Manfred Stohl has driven a subdued rally after a heavy testing crash, but the dramas ahead have allowed the OMV Peugeot 307 driver to sneak into ninth. He is under pressure from fast-closing Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, who fell to 14th when he encountered the same turbo wastegate probems as team-mate Gronholm on Friday afternoon.

Leading results after leg two:

Pos  Driver    Make     Time
 1.  Loeb      Citroen  2h 24:57.9
 2.  Sordo     Citroen  + 34.4
 3.  Bengue    Peugeot  + 2:05.4
 4.  Gronholm  Ford     + 2:09.5
 5.  Kopecky   Skoda    + 2:23.9
 6.  Duval     Skoda    + 3:30.2
 7.  Solberg   Subaru   + 3:42.0
 8.  Sarrazin  Subaru   + 3:56.5
 9.  Stohl     Peugeot  + 4:40.3
10.  Hirvonen  Ford     + 5:03.7
11.  Atkinson  Subaru   + 5:07.6
12.  Panizzi   Skoda    + 6:17.4
13.  Aigner    Skoda    + 6:54.7
14.  Wilson    Ford     + 7:08.5
15.  Vojtech   Peugeot  + 13:17.5
16.  Pons      Citroen  + 16:04.7
17.  Prokop    Citroen  + 17:32.5
18.  Latvala   Ford     + 17:56.4
19.  Bernd     Renault  + 18:00.6
20.  Beres     Suzuki   + 19:31.5