Loeb pulls away from Hirvonen

Hirvonen slowed at the end of Friday's last stage to hand Loeb the lead, as the Finn felt that running first on the road would be a disadvantage this morning.

But with little difference in the stage conditions, Loeb was able to take a series of stage wins and extend a 10.7-second lead over Hirvonen, although both admitted they were right on the ragged edge.

"I was pushing on the limit from the start to the end. It was a very good drive, really, really fast, no mistakes," said Loeb.

"I'm really happy and I had good grip being first on the road, it was no problem so I'm going to push as hard as possible."

Hirvonen (Ford) was surprised by Citroen driver Loeb's pace - but determined to keep in touch with him.

"It's absolutely crazy speeds that we are doing, but he is just a little bit faster," said Hirvonen. "We didn't make any mistakes, but he beat me anyway. I can't let him get away any more."

Third-placed Jari-Matti Latvala is now 50 seconds adrift in the second factory Ford, and reckoned Loeb and Hirvonen were taking a lot of risks.

"I saw the marks on the snow banks and I'm not sure how long they can manage to do this," said Latvala. "The guys at the front are just flying now, so anything can happen."

Although Hirvonen admitted that making Loeb run first on the road hadn't made any difference after all, Loeb thinks conditions will be tougher when the stages are repeated after service as the cars at the tail of the field will have compacted the ice.

"I know this afternoon will be more difficult with the lines from the last cars coming through, so I've tried to do my best in the morning," said Loeb.

"I think the decision was more for this afternoon than this morning, so we will see in the afternoon."

Dani Sordo remains fourth for Citroen, despite his car cutting out on occasion this morning, but is coming under increasing pressure from Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg, who has closed to within 12.2 seconds.

Solberg benefited from day one star Per-Gunnar Andersson being slowed by a clutch problem on his Skoda, which ultimately forced him to retire before SS13, and Petter Solberg struggling with a slightly sticking throttle on his self-run Citroen Xsara.

Stobart teammates Matthew Wilson and Urmo Aava complete the current top eight, with Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier having been plagued by alternator problems this morning, dropping him to 11th.

Ogier's teammate Evgeny Novikov also fell out of points contention when he received a penalty for leaving service late this morning, then hit a snow bank and subsequently had gearbox issues.

After a litany of problems yesterday, Mads Ostberg (Adapta Subaru) had a trouble-free and more competitive start to day two, moving up to ninth ahead of Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen Junior).

Patrik Sandell continues to dominate the Production class in his Red Bull Skoda, but Eyvind Brynildsen has been moved back up to second after the officials ruled that he had no choice but to go into a ditch in SS5 yesterday because spectators attending to Patrik Flodin's crashed car had blocked the road.

Leading positions after SS13:

Pos  Driver              Car      Time
 1.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen  1h47:12.4
 2.  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford      +   10.7
 3.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford      +   49.9
 4.  Dani Sordo          Citroen   + 2:26.8
 5.  Henning Solberg     Ford      + 2:39.0
 6.  Petter Solberg      Citroen   + 3:01.1
 7.  Matthew Wilson      Ford      + 3:58.1
 8.  Urmo Aava           Ford      + 4:45.0
 9.  Mads Ostberg        Subaru    + 5:59.8
10.  Conrad Rautenbach   Citroen   + 6:42.8