Solberg Hopes for a Loeb Mistake

The Subaru driver went into the day in second, only 9.9 seconds behind the Citroen driver, but he lost time on all three of the day's stages so far. He is now 23.7 seconds behind the Frenchman.

Solberg said he pushed his Impreza as hard as possible on the three stages and that if he went any faster it would be dangerous.

"I'm tyring hard and I still hope to win the rally, but Loeb has to do a mistake," Solberg told Autosport-Atlas. "It is the only way. I can't do more than I do now. It is going to be difficult. As I said before the rally, everything is difficult this year.

"If I went any faster, I am coming into a dangerous area, and that sort of speed can't be kept up over five or six stages. You can only do it for one stage or half a stage maybe. I have so much experience, I know where the limit is.

"There is nothing we can change is service today to make us go any quicker. We just to have look forward to all the other things that are going to happen with the car in the future and engine."

With Ford having a bad rally following Toni Gardemeister's disqualification, the Japanese manufacturer can close the gap on the blue oval in the race for third in the manufacturers' title. Subaru is currently 10 points behind.

"The manufacturers' title is a very important so we will take the rest of the event step by step," Solberg added.