Loeb moves into Rally Ireland lead

The reigning champion began today's second loop 2.2 seconds behind his Citroen teammate Dani Sordo, having lost time with a suspension problem in the early stages.

But Sordo's lead was shortlived, as an overshoot in SS5 cost him six seconds and allowed Loeb to get ahead. The Frenchman proceeded to win two of the loop's three stages and has established a 6.8-second lead over Sordo, who was quickest in SS7.

Loeb currently trails Gronholm by four points with only the Irish event and next month's Rally GB remaining, so a victory this weekend would be a massive boost to his hopes of a fourth successive title.

However with two and a half days on the very slippery Irish stages still ahead of him, Loeb is not taking anything for granted.

"The problem is to keep the car on the road," he said. "There is a lot of mud everywhere, so I just try to keep a good feeling.

"If I go too slowly I lose confidence and then I'm not able to drive. So I try to keep a good rhythm.

"It's only the start of the rally. At the moment, it's okay."

Third place now belongs to Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, who set a series of top three stage times to catch and pass Mikko Hirvonen. But the works Ford driver responded by beating Latvala in Lough Gill 2, so the two Finns are now just 0.2 seconds apart.

Petter Solberg continues to run fifth, and is the only works Subaru driver still in contention with his teammates Chris Atkinson and Xevi Pons having both gone off the road earlier today. While Pons had to retire from the leg with engine damage, Atkinson was able to rejoin in 69th place, 20 minutes adrift.

Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg is only 17 seconds behind his younger brother in sixth position, ahead of privateer Subaru driver Guy Wilks and OMV Kronos Citroen's Manfred Stohl.

Having run seventh this morning, Kris Meeke dropped over a minute when his DMG Subaru lost engine power and slowed in SS5, falling to ninth as a consequence. He was able to keep the car running and regained some pace in the following stage, only to go off in SS7.

Leading positions after SS7:

Pos  Driver     Car      Time
 1.  Loeb       Citroen  1h07:50.9
 2.  Sordo      Citroen   +    6.8
 3.  Latvala    Ford      + 1:11.6
 4.  Hirvonen   Ford      + 1:11.8
 5.  P Solberg  Subaru    + 1:51.3
 6.  H Solberg  Ford      + 2:08.4
 7.  Wilks      Subaru    + 2:52.5
 8.  Stohl      Citroen   + 3:13.2
 9.  Wilson     Ford      + 4:38.5
10.  McNulty    Subaru    + 5:20.5