Loeb extends lead over Gronholm

Leg two began with the 30 kilometre Silves-Ourique 1, the longest stage of the rally, and made more difficult this morning by early rain - which not only made the conditions slippery, but created a tyre choice dilemma.

Gronholm gambled on better weather, whereas Loeb believed that the morning would remain damp. At first it seemed that the Ford driver's choice would pay off, as the initial split times in SS8 indicated that Gronholm would retake the lead.

But Loeb prospered in the more slippery final section of the stage and ultimately extended his lead by another two seconds. He then won the following two stages and will head to service with a 15-second advantage.

"I'm really surprised by that time because it was drying a lot and my feeling was that the harder tyre would have been perhaps better," said Loeb after SS10.

"I'm very happy with the time, so no problems. Marcus is not giving up, he's only 15 seconds behind. We have three more long stages to go and four tomorrow - we have to continue."

Gronholm was surprised that his tyre choice had proved to be the incorrect one.

"We thought he was gambling, I was afraid of going with him..." said Gronholm. "But now we are behind him. He is very quick. It would be much easier without him in the rally..."

The lead duo left the rest of the field trailing in the long opening stage, with even Mikko Hirvonen in third nearly a minute adrift by the end of it.

Petter Solberg kept Hirvonen under pressure in SS8 and SS9, but then dropped 13 seconds behind the Finn after struggling in Almodovar 1.

"We lost too much time in the middle (of the stage)," said Solberg. "I couldn't get any rhythm. That's all it is, unfortunately.

"The car works well here, I just didn't have the best pace notes for this stage."

When the leg started Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala was aiming to close the 30 second gap to fifth-placed Dani Sordo, but instead he lost time after an errant tyre choice contributed to a trip off the road in SS8.

"It didn't work out," he said. "We didn't cut our tyres and it was raining in the morning and the stages were very wet. It was very difficult to drive without cuts and we were losing a lot of time.

"I just have to keep full focus and keep this pace, and try to finish this rally now."

Although he lost time to Sordo, Latvala remains comfortably ahead of the battle for the remaining points.

At the end of SS9, just 2.1 seconds covered Chris Atkinson, Daniel Carlsson and Henning Solberg in eighth to tenth places. But Atkinson then went off the road and retired early in the stage, just after seventh-placed Manfred Stohl lost nearly three minutes with a mistake of his own.

Carlsson was the main beneficiary, picking up two positions and also edging further clear of Solberg as he acclimatised to the Kronos Citroen.

"I'm starting to find the pace in this car now," said Carlsson. "It's really lovely. I'm enjoying it.

"We have to be realistic. It's my absolute first rally on gravel with this car, we had no testing on gravel. We just have to take our time and go step by step."

Toni Gardemeister is now missing from the lower top ten battle, having been excluded at the end of leg one for arriving at a time control with only three wheels on his Mitsubishi following a brush with a bridge.

Drivers are no longer permitted to drag damaged cars back along road sections, with the rules insisting that cars must have four wheels and tyres when on public roads.

Standings after SS10:

Pos  Driver        Make        Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen     2h13:55.9
 2.  Gronholm      Ford        +    15.0
 3.  Hirvonen      Ford        +  1:21.0
 4.  Solberg       Subaru      +  1:34.3
 5.  Sordo         Citroen     +  2:25.7
 6.  Latvala       Ford        +  3:33.5
 7.  Carlsson      Citroen     +  4:54.7
 8.  Solberg       Ford        +  5:09.6
 9.  Galli         Citroen     +  6:36.8
10.  Mikkelsen     Ford        +  8:38.3

All Timing Unofficial