Loeb extends his advantage

Mindful of the events of the Rally Japan three weeks ago - when the charging Gronholm carved into Loeb's once ample lead during leg three - the champion made a concerted effort to break Gronholm's challenge in the first stage of Sunday morning.

"I remember Japan and the lead going down to five seconds and giving me big pressure," said Loeb.

He duly went fastest through SS17 by 7.3 seconds, extending his lead to nearly half a minute.

Although Gronholm responded by winning SS18 and SS19, he believes that the rally is now lost. Not only is Loeb's margin unassailable, but Gronholm cannot foresee the Frenchman's notoriously reliable Citroen Xsara having problems during the concluding loop.

"If you look at the statistics, nothing ever happens to him," said Gronholm. "I'm not happy with my pace yesterday afternoon and also this morning."

Having established a relatively secure lead, Loeb said that he was now monitoring Gronholm's split times and measuring his pace accordingly.

"This morning I was in a good rhythm," he said. "Marcus did some good times, but I'm driving to the splits and for the moment it's okay."

Behind the leaders, the remainder of the WRC field is very spread out, with Mikko Hirvonen, Manfred Stohl and Toni Gardemeister set to complete the top five provided they complete the last three stages without drama.

Petter Solberg's seventh place came under threat when wheel and tyre problems left him struggling through SS18. He lost over a minute, but remains well clear of his eighth-placed brother Henning, whose bizarre series of technical problems continued when co-driver Cato Menkured's door flew open in SS19.

Outside the points, Matthew Wilson had to rely on hand signals from co-driver Michael Orr after an intercom failure, while Chris Atkinson was finding new ways to entertain himself while heading for a lonely ninth in a tricky Subaru.

"We're entering a new contest," he said. "We're no longer going for the fastest time, we're going for the record for the most understeer and oversteer in one corner..."

Leading positions after SS19:

Pos  Driver        Make           Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  4h 06:37.4
 2.  Gronholm      Ford         + 25.6
 3.  Hirvonen      Ford       + 5:08.3
 4.  Stohl         Peugeot    + 6:20.6
 5.  Gardemeister  Citroen    + 8:28.4
 6.  Pons          Citroen    + 9:34.7
 7.  P Solberg     Subaru    + 13:35.7
 8.  H Solberg     Peugeot   + 14:27.5
 9.  Atkinson      Subaru    + 16:50.0
10.  Sordo         Citroen   + 17:30.5