Loeb takes lead, Gronholm crashes

Loeb lost more than 20 seconds and dropped to fourth place after overshooting the first corner of SS2 yesterday, but three consecutive quickest times today have lifted the reigning champion to the head of the leaderboard.

Hirvonen and Dani Sordo traded seconds throughout the morning but Sordo lost 16 seconds to Hirvonen on SS10 and is now more than 30 seconds adrift of second place.

Marcus Gronholm's strong return to the WRC ended in tears on today's first stage when he crashed out of fourth place.

He damaged the front end of his Subaru Impreza in the accident and was forced to park the car with a soaring engine temperature and low oil pressure.

Gronholm's downfall handed fourth place to Petter Solberg, well clear of Matt Wilson fifth and Henning Solberg sixth.

Sebastien Ogier joined Gronholm on the retirement list when he surrendered his sixth place with a broken steering arm.

Citroen Junior Team driver Evgeny Novikov ran as high as sixth after setting the fourth fastest time on SS8. But the Russian dropped to eighth after a crash on SS9 left him with some bodywork damage and a front right puncture, and cost him nearly two minutes.

Leading positions after SS10:
Pos Driver             Car               Time
 1. Sebastien Loeb     Citroen      2:10:24.7 
 2. Mikko Hirvonen     Ford              +6.9 
 3. Dani Sordo         Citroen          +37.5
 4. Petter Solberg     Citroen        +1:25.5
 5. Matthew Wilson     Ford           +2:12.2
 6. Henning Solberg    Ford           +2:33.2
 7. Mads Ostberg       Subaru         +3:43.8
 8. Evgeny Novikov     Citroen        +3:45.3
 9. Conrad Rautenbach  Citroen        +5:08.7
10. Federico Villagra  Ford           +6:56.8