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Rally GB: Gronholm chases

Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm and Subaru's Petter Solberg have turned up the heat as they attempt to overhaul Wales Rally GB leader Sebastien Loeb (Citroen). The Finn won the third stage of the day to close the gap to Loeb while Solberg took the fourth test of the day beating Gronholm by 5.4s

Loeb's lead has now dropped to 14.8s with Gronholm 4s clear of Solberg as the drivers head back to service before the final two stages of the first leg later this afternoon.

Loeb took charge of the rally on the first two tests to eke out a 19.5s advantage over Gronholm. With a 30-point lead in the championship it was thought that the Citroen ace would be taking it relatively easy this weekend. Loeb was quick to dispel that belief, though, going through the first stage of the day - the notorious Brechfa 1 forest stage - 5.7s quicker than any other driver.

With the event moved from its traditional November slot, the conditions were expected to be much drier than the mud, snow and ice of former years. But the rain has been hammering it down in Wales making the stages slippery and perilous. Loeb was clearly unperturbed and went an incredible 13.1s quicker than Gronholm on the third stage, the Trawscoed 1.

Going into the third stage of the day then, Loeb had a 19.5s advantage over Gronholm and was a massive 29s ahead of third-placed driver Petter Solberg (Subaru), who has been tipped to take his third consecutive Wales Rally GB victory this weekend. Not if Loeb has anything to do with it, though.

Maybe his Citroen bosses whispered something in the Frenchman's ear before the third stage, or maybe Gronholm and Solberg realised that they needed to step on it or else have Loeb runaway from them, for both piled on the pressure in the final two stages of the morning.

Gronholm pipped Solberg in the fourth test by just 0.1s to clinch the stage win, but Loeb was only 3.3s off the pace. Solberg wasn't going to be left out, though. The Norwegian powered his way through the second running of the Trawscoed test - SS5 - to finish 5.4s clear of Gronholm with Loeb a further 1.4s down.

"You can push in the hard sections and be careful in the slippery ones," Loeb commented. "Everything was perfect. The car has no problems and we will just change the tyres, put in petrol and go again. We will try to continue in this rhythm and see what we can do."

Gronholm added: "It was not so good in the first two stages, but now the conditions will be equal I think. We will change things a bit with the diffs and hopefully we can be a little bit closer tonight."

Solberg was ready to concede that Loeb had done an excellent job this morning, but he too hopes for better this afternoon. "Sebastien was quicker than me on these stages last year too and I just have to speed up," said the Norwegian. "The car and tyres are working well, conditions are drying a little, so we'll see what we can do on the next stages."

Markko Martin is Ford's highest runner in fourth. After the first stage he was ahead of Solberg in third, but by the second stage of the day he dropped to fourth where he remained after the third stage. The Estonian has dropped further on SS5 trailing Solberg by nearly 13s. He can take it relatively easy though for Citroen's Carlos Sainz is 51s down on him in fifth, struggling somewhat on the wet and muddy tracks.

Ford's second driver Francois Duval, who took the first stage of the rally Thursday evening, is in sixth overall just 3s ahead of Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera. Subaru's Mikko Hirvonen has hung onto the final points position in eighth, but is over two minutes off Loeb's pace.

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