Loeb on course for dominant win

The reigning champion continued to pull away from Mikko Hirvonen during the first loop of leg three stages in Sardinia, going fastest of all in SS15, and now leads by two and a half minutes.

While Loeb conceded that it might be more entertaining to be embroiled in a final morning battle, he insisted that "to drive for victory is also nice" and pointed out that he couldn't be certain of the win until he reached the finish.

"I try not to take any risks," said Loeb. "The stages are nice but difficult - very fast, very slippery. You can easily go a bit too wide and hit something. I try to be very concentrated."

Provided Hirvonen avoids trouble in the remaining stages, his second place will be his best ever WRC result.

"I don't need to go any faster, and I can definitely keep this pace up, so it's good," Hirvonen said. "Maybe I could (short) cut the road and that would stop Loeb. No, he's far ahead so let him go. Second would be fantastic, but there's still three stages to go."

Third placed Dani Sordo also has to just keep going to secure third, as his rally-long rival Gigi Galli was unable to start leg three after a cooling fan failure at the end of Saturday.

The main story of the final morning has been the progress of the delayed Subarus. Both Chris Atkinson and Petter Solberg set fastest stage times (in SS14 and SS13 respectively) as they moved back up to fifth and seventh.

Fourth placed Xavier Pons is a minute ahead of Atkinson and therefore probably uncatchable, but Solberg has a good chance of taking sixth from Jussi Valimaki, who has driven superbly in a Mitsubishi Lancer that he had virtually zero experience of prior to the start of the event.

Subaru privateer Kristian Sohlberg has slipped to eighth after a couple of errors, including a time-consuming excursion in SS13. He will need to avoid such incidents during the second loop as Manfred Stohl is now closing in on Sohlberg's position.

Francois Duval has progressed to 10th in his Skoda, despite stalling at the start of SS13, but the Red Bull Skoda of his fellow former works driver Harri Rovanpera has hit bigger trouble, retiring with a broken differential.

The lead has changed in the Junior category, with Guy Wilks stopping with mechanical problems in SS15, allowing Patrick Sandell to move ahead.

Leaderboard after SS15:

Pos  Driver         Make               Time
 1.  Loeb           Citroen      3h 28:29.9
 2.  Hirvonen       Ford           + 2:40.0
 3.  Sordo          Citroen        + 3:25.0
 4.  Pons           Citroen        + 5:08.5
 5.  Atkinson       Subaru         + 6:08.0
 6.  Valimaki       Mitsubishi     + 6:43.3
 7.  P Solberg      Subaru         + 7:07.7
 8.  Sohlberg       Subaru         + 7:23.2
 9.  Stohl          Peugeot        + 8:00.4
10.  Duval          Skoda          + 9:35.2
11.  MacHale        Ford          + 14:03.4
12.  Perez Companc  Ford          + 14:55.0
13.  Aigner         Skoda         + 15:07.8
14.  Sandell        Renault       + 28:51.6
15.  Rautenbach     Renault       + 33:06.6
16.  Pressac        Citroen       + 34:22.0
17.  Aava           Suzuki        + 35:12.6
18.  Kopecky        Skoda         + 37:11.8
19.  Andersson      Suzuki        + 37:28.9
20.  Burkart        Citroen       + 38:17.1