Loeb heading for easy victory

The world champion went into this afternoon's action safe in the knowledge that his second-placed teammate Dani Sordo had been asked to take a 'no risks' approach to the second half of the rally, and that the Kronos Citroen duo were two minutes clear of the rest of the field.

Loeb and Sordo took a cautious approach to the afternoon, although the former was fastest through the OMV Wendall Superspecial that wrapped the leg up. With just Sunday morning's four stages to go, they are 34 seconds apart.

Marcus Gronholm managed to close in a little during the course of the day, and will start the final leg 65 seconds adrift of Sordo, having shown great pace during the dry stages while being frustrated by the constantly changing conditions.

"When it was dry, we could go to the normal set-up and it was fine," he said. "I hope we can finish third, that is the goal now."

Citroen privateer Toni Gardemeister hopes to prevent Gronholm from achieving his aim, although he has now slipped 25 seconds behind the Ford after making an incorrect tyre choice.

"It has been very difficult," Gardemeister said. "We chose very soft slicks because we thought there would be rain on the stages but it was completely dry.

"There is still a fight for third place, I think. The weather will be critical, but if we have the right tyre choice we have a chance."

Gronholm's teammate Mikko Hirvonen is also looming behind Gardemeister in fifth, having picked up pace throughout the day, shrugging off the vibration that troubled him during the final morning stage.

Hirvonen easily cruised past the unhappy Manfred Stohl, who has been deeply frustrated by a series of errant tyre choices.

Andreas Aigner continues to hold off Stephane Sarrazin in the battle for seventh, but the flying Jan Kopecky - who set two fastest stage times during the day - has now taken ninth from Chris Atkinson.

Leading positions after SS15:

Pos  Driver        Make           Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  2h 47:53.5
 2.  Sordo         Citroen      + 34.3
 3.  Gronholm      Ford       + 2:14.1
 4.  Gardemeister  Citroen    + 2:39.8
 5.  Hirvonen      Ford       + 2:56.4
 6.  Stohl         Peugeot    + 3:20.0
 7.  Aigner        Skoda      + 4:42.1
 8.  Sarrazin      Subaru     + 4:54.7
 9.  Kopecky       Skoda      + 5:11.7
10.  Atkinson      Subaru     + 5:23.1
11.  MacHale       Ford      + 11:01.6
12.  Wevers        Toyota    + 16:01.7
13.  Wilson        Ford      + 16:17.6
14.  Ekstrom       Skoda     + 16:39.7
15.  Meeke         Citroen   + 21:05.7
16.  Casier        Renault   + 21:06.3
17.  Poulsen       Toyota    + 21:20.4
18.  Schelle       Suzuki    + 21:28.0
19.  Pons          Citroen   + 21:34.6
20.  Van Eldik     Subaru    + 21:49.3