Loeb reclaims the rally lead

OMV Citroen Xsara driver Francois Duval had edged ahead of the reigning champion in the factory C4 at the end of day one after Loeb made a poor tyre choice for the second loop of Friday stages.

But Duval could not maintain his form this morning and made errors in both the opening stages of the day. The overshoots and stalls dropped him down to fourth overall, although he regained third in SS10.

Meanwhile Loeb was fastest in two of the morning's four stages and moved back into a clear lead. He hold a 26 second advantage over title rival Marcus Gronholm as the cars head for the lunchtime service.

Gronholm's teammate Mikko Hirvonen had moved ahead of his team leader by winning SS7, but then moved back down to third when Gronholm won SS9. He was then pushed back to third by Duval in Panzerplatte 1, albeit by only half a second.

Despite being concerned by a developing engine problem that afflicted his Skoda at low revs, privateer Jan Kopecky has advanced to fifth place this morning, ahead of Toni Gardemeister, who had to slow with hydraulic problems in Panzerplatte.

Petter Solberg has continued to struggle with his Subaru but has progressed to seventh and is closing on Kopecky and Gardemeister.

Subaru's third driver Xevi Pons survived a spin in the opening stage to occupy the final points position at present, with Jari-Matti Latvala and Matthew Wilson completing the current top ten in their Stobart Fords.

After losing eight minutes with a trip off the road early on Friday, Subaru's Chris Atkinson has continued to set top four stage times and has recovered to 11th.

Pos  Driver        Car            Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  2h 01:38.5
 2.  Gronholm      Ford       +   26.7
 3.  Duval         Citroen    +   41.8
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford       +   42.3
 5.  Kopecky       Skoda      + 2:21.4
 6.  Gardemeister  Citroen    + 2:25.0
 7.  P Solberg     Subaru     + 2:47.5
 8.  Pons          Subaru     + 3:41.0
 9.  Latvala       Ford       + 3:44.1
10.  Wilson        Ford       + 6:53.1