Loeb leads into final day in Greece

Both men moved up when erstwhile leader Dani Sordo suffered severe tyre problems in the first stage of this afternoon's loop.

The Citroen driver sustained one puncture and a delamination in SS11, then a further puncture in SS12.

With the rules now insisting that drivers cannot take cars onto road sections without rubber on all four wheels, Sordo and co-driver Marc Marti had to put the least damaged tyres back on to get between stages, then drive through the stages on the punctured tyres.

He lost six minutes in SS13 alone, but managed to complete the leg in seventh place.

Loeb said he had deliberately dropped time in SS11 because he suspected the tyres would struggle to get through the whole loop.

"I had the feeling in the first stage that if I pushed I would destroy everything," he said.

"I felt it was very hard for the tyres, so I didn't push, and now we've finished the loop that was most difficult for the tyres. It was really difficult, but I still had four good tyres for this stage, so no problem."

As Sordo was forced out, Solberg moved up to second for Subaru, and will start day three just 28.7 seconds behind Loeb, who will have the worst of the road conditions tomorrow.

"Bloody hell..." said Solberg when informed he was now Loeb's closest rival for the win.

"In this position now we are taking it very carefully just to finish. It's going to be very interesting tomorrow. This is very, very important for Subaru and all the mechanics, so let's take it stage by stage. There's still a long way to go and today has been incredible.

"We've still got work to do to reach the maximum, but this car has got huge potential."

Both Solberg brothers are currently in line for podium finishes, with the consistent Henning now up to third for Stobart Ford.

Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) was surprised to find himself in fourth as others hit trouble, although he is three minutes behind Loeb.

PH Citroen driver Urmo Aava is now back up to fifth, despite being frustrated to get caught behind the slowing Sordo in SS13. Aava is only 11 seconds ahead of Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson after a consistent run by the young Briton.

At the start of the afternoon Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) had hoped he could get back into the lead battle having previously been delayed by a puncture and suspension damage.

But a turbo problem struck before the start of SS11, leaving him drastically short of power through all three stages.

"Going into the long stage, on the startline, when I put the launch on, I heard a noise like the pressure coming out of a pipe," said Latvala, who is now nearly nine minutes behind Loeb and in eighth place.

"We started and the car wasn't going anywhere. The air pipe for the turbo just burst. So we've driven three stages without boost for the turbo. No damage to the engine, it's similar to what happened in Mexico. We can fix it and keep going tomorrow."

Both Federico Villagra (Munchi's Ford) and Per-Gunnar Andersson (Suzuki) retired with suspension damage when battling for sixth this afternoon, but Toni Gardemeister's Suzuki has kept going despite a turbo issue and is 10th, behind semi-works Citroen driver Conrad Rautenbach.

Leading positions after day two:

Pos  Driver        Car      Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  2h48:11.1
 2.  P Solberg     Subaru    +   28.7
 3.  H Solberg     Ford      + 1:05.3
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford      + 3:01.2
 5.  Aava          Citroen   + 4:11.6
 6.  Wilson        Ford      + 4:22.8
 7.  Sordo         Citroen   + 5:33.6
 8.  Latvala       Ford      + 8:51.3
 9.  Rautenbach    Citroen   + 8:58.0
10.  Gardemeister  Suzuki    + 9:13.0