Loeb fears damage is too severe

The World Rally Championship leader suffered a dramatic puncture in today's final stage. The wheel then broke as well, and although he only lost a minute nursing the Citroen to the stage finish, the following road section proved more damaging.

"The road section was very long to come here," said Loeb. "The car is very damaged, but I hope my mechanics will be able to fix it tomorrow.

"The stage was okay, it was after on the road section - I had another puncture and the car was going sideways all of the time.

"Everything was going worse and worse, I was thinking it could be finished. But now we are here and we will see, we have 45 minutes to see what we can do."

Loeb added that he was not surprised by the incident as he had feared damage from the extremely rocky stages all day.

"For me it was really rough. Very difficult for the car and tyres," he said. "On the stage before, I came through and said it was incredible how the car can come through without the puncture.

"Then on the next stage I had a puncture."

Provided he can resume the rally on Sunday, Loeb said he plans to cruise to a safe second place.

"The only thing to do is to try and finish," he said. "It will be very rough. I hope we can finish second and go carefully."