Loeb keeps victory hopes alive

Loeb was fastest in all three stages this morning and the battle for victory is still on with just 45 km of stage distance remaining this morning.

Loeb had given up pursuit of victory after being 23.4 seconds behind thanks to minimal time gains in SS14 and SS15, but Gronholm suffered gearbox problems in SS16 and dropped nine seconds, re-opening the Frenchman's faint hopes for victory. The Ford team are going to work on the transmission in the next service period.

The battle for third between the privateer Mitsubishi Lancer of Gigi Galli and Daniel Carlsson continues to rage. Carlsson had a 0.3 second advantage going into the morning, only for Galli to snatch the position in SS15. Carlsson snatched third back in SS16 and now has a 0.7 second advantage over Galli as both chase their first podium finish in the WRC.

Former DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom crashed out in SS14, on a bad morning for Red Bull Skoda where both cars retired from the rally.

Ekstrom had begun the final leg in fifth place, just 0.1 sec ahead of Finnish privateer Janne Tuohino. Ekstrom went off the road 3.8 km into the Lesjofors test.

Teammate Andreas Aigner retired after succumbing to engine problems caused by an earlier off, coincidentally at the same corner as Ekstrom.

Tuohino has inherited fifth place in his privateer Citroen Xsara WRC ahead of Thomas Radstrom, Kosti Katajamaki and Xavier Pons.

Henning Solberg lies in tenth having earlier clawed his way back into the points following his end-over-end roll yesterday. The OMV Peugeot driver dropped three minutes after having to stop midway through SS15 to change a broken wheel. He is continuing to push however, and posted the second fastest time through SS16.

Top 20 after SS16:

Pos  Driver     Make       Time
 1.  Gronholm   Ford       2:45:35.9 
 2.  Loeb       Citroen    +    14.4 
 3.  Carlsson   Mitsubishi +  2:38.2 
 4.  Galli      Mitsubishi +  2:38.9 
 5.  Tuohino    Citroen    +  4:06.6 
 6.  Radstrom   Subaru     +  4:52.7 
 7.  Katajamaki Ford       +  6:30.5 
 8.  Pons       Citroen    +  7:24.9 
 9.  Joge       Peugeot    +  7:57.7 
10.  Solberg    Peugeot    +  8:31.7 
11.  Kopecky    Skoda      + 10:44.7 
12.  Atkinson   Subaru     + 10:50.9 
13.  Solberg    Subaru     + 11:18.6 
14.  Hirvonen   Ford       + 11:25.2 
15.  Wilson     Ford       + 13:13.1 
16.  Sordo      Citroen    + 14:12.0 
17.  Andersson  Suzuki     + 17:37.8 
18.  Ekstrom    Skoda      + 18:17.4 
18.  Sandell    Renault    + 18:31.4 
19.  Stohl      Peugeot    + 18:58.6 
20.  Aava       Suzuki     + 20:24.3