Loeb takes healthy lead into leg three
Sebastien Loeb's untroubled progress towards yet another Rally Deutschland victory continued through leg two, as he stretched his lead to 35.7 seconds
The world champion did not win any of this afternoon's four stages but his consistent speed still allowed him to ease further away from his double stage winning team-mate Dani Sordo.
Citroen's podium sweep looks more comfortable now, with Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier pulling away from Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala in their battle for third. They will start day three 16.6s apart.
Even worse for Ford, Mikko Hirvonen retired the second factory car from fifth when he lost drive on SS13. Stobart Ford driver Francois Duval inherited the place, only to roll into retirement on the following Panzerplatte stage.
That has allowed Petter Solberg to move up to fifth. The Solberg Citroen driver was thrilled with his car's performance as he took two stage wins - including a dominant performance on Panzerplatte - this afternoon.
The retirements ahead mean Kimi Raikkonen (Citroen Junior) is now sixth and edging away from Stobart's Matthew Wilson, while Hirvonen is still classified eighth under the superally system.
Just outside the top 10, a thrilling S2000 battle sees P-G Andersson, Patrik Sandell and Martin Prokop covered by just 5.6s, while Armindo Araujo and Hans Wiejs Jr continue to lead in the Production and Junior series respectively.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h05m21.6s 2. Dani Sordo Citroen + 35.7s 3. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 2m07.1s 4. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 2m23.7s 5. Petter Solberg Citroen + 5m16.0s 6. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 7m24.4s 7. Matthew Wilson Ford + 7m43.9s 8. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 12m27.4s 9. Ken Block Ford + 12m38.9s 10. Mark van Eldik Subaru + 14m10.9s
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