Loeb keeps his cool to extend lead

With a stage cancelled in the morning because of spectator problems, and many of his rivals hitting trouble, Loeb kept his cool to set the pace on three of the day's five competitive runs.

He was beaten once early in the day when Mitsubishi's Gigi Galli pipped him to the quickest time on SS8 at Capafonts - but the Italian's joy was short-lived as he crashed out immediately following the finish line.

And Loeb could only manage the fifth fastest time in the final stage of the day as Ford's Mikko Hirvonen set the pace.

The Frenchman will now head into the final day with a 57.8 seconds advantage over his Citroen teammate Francois Duval, who was second quickest on all but the final of the day's stages. The pair appear to be cruising to a result that will hand their Citroen team the manufacturers' title.

Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm ended the day in third position, but he appears to be struggling with an overheating engine. He lost more than 30 seconds in the final stage of the day to drop well behind Duval and back towards Hirvonen, who is now just 30 seconds adrift in fourth place.

The fact that Gronholm was still able to hold onto third despite his late dramas was testament to the misfortune suffered by many of his rivals. Galli had been a threat before his exit, while Toni Gardemeister saw his challenge for third evaporate on SS10 when he lost more than 12 minutes after running off the road.

Xavier Pons is fifth while Ford's Roman Kresta has bounced back from a spin and a stall earlier in the day to end the day sixth in the standings.

Top 20 leaderboard at the end of leg two:

Pos  Driver        Make         Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen      2h 49:17.5
 2.  Duval         Citroen      +     57.8
 3.  Gronholm      Peugeot      +   2:11.8
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford         +   2:41.3
 5.  Pons          Citroen      +   2:53.6
 6.  Kresta        Ford         +   3:17.5
 7.  Bernardi      Peugeot      +   3:28.4
 8.  Warmbold      Ford         +   4:36.0
 9.  Kopecky       Skoda        +   4:43.0
10.  Atkinson      Subaru       +   5:11.4
11.  Rovanpera     Mitsubishi   +   6:12.9
12.  Schwarz       Skoda        +   7:41.3
13.  Sordo         Citroen      +  14:35.2
14.  Gardemeister  Ford         +  14:47.4
15.  Boland        Ford         +  16:59.5
16.  Solberg       Subaru       +  18:10.5
17.  Katajamaki    Suzuki       +  18:44.4
18.  Aava          Suzuki       +  22:39.8
19.  Sola          Ford         +  22:42.1
20.  Prokop        Suzuki       +  22:58.2