Loeb continues to fend off Hirvonen

The duo have been incredibly evenly-matched through the second of today's three stage loops - with Hirvonen gaining a little on Loeb in SS15 and SS17, but losing out slightly in SS16 and SS18, meaning that they head for the lunchtime service 14 seconds apart.

Gigi Galli started the loop in third place for Stobart Ford, but had to retire after rolling into a ditch in the Kakaristo stage.

At the same time, his teammate Henning Solberg was being overhauled by Citroen's Dani Sordo, with the Spaniard then finding himself elevated to third thanks to Galli's accident. Once ahead of Solberg, Sordo quickly stretched his advantage and is now 17 seconds clear of the Ford, although he remains over two minutes behind the leaders.

Solberg is now coming under pressure from Chris Atkinson, who has continued to show improved pace for Subaru today and is now only three seconds away from claiming fourth. His teammate Petter Solberg is 36 seconds adrift in sixth.

With Per-Gunner Andersson also crashing in the stage that claimed Galli, local Ford privateer Matti Rantanen has moved up to an impressive seventh position, comfortably clear of Toni Gardemeister (Suzuki) and Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford).

Leading positions after SS18:

Pos  Driver        Car      Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  2h03:38.8
 2.  Hirvonen      Ford      +   14.8
 3.  Sordo         Citroen   + 2:22.8
 4.  H Solberg     Ford      + 2:39.8
 5.  Atkinson      Subaru    + 2:42.7
 6.  P Solberg     Subaru    + 3:18.9
 7.  Rantanen      Ford      + 4:48.4
 8.  Gardemeister  Suzuki    + 6:04.1
 9.  Wilson        Ford      + 6:21.9
10.  Rautenbach    Citroen   + 7:40.2