Sordo still leads as Loeb closes in

Loeb, who led the rally overnight, fell 19 seconds adrift of his Citroen teammate when he suffered a puncture in SS9, but closed the gap by three seconds in the next stage.

"In the previous stage we had a puncture and drove 10 kilometres without air in the tyre," said Loeb after SS10. "I tried to be careful and not break anything, so I lost some time. But we are still here and in second so it's okay.

"It's going to be interesting. I hope (running first on the road) this afternoon will not be so bad and I won't lose any more time, because if I lose too much, tomorrow will be difficult."

Behind the Citroens, Petter Solberg's third place for Subaru is coming under severe pressure from Jari-Matti Latvala. The Ford driver has closed to within 1.5 seconds - partly due to Latvala's fast times as he recovers from his Friday suspension problems, and partly because Solberg was delayed behind Latvala's teammate Mikko Hirvonen in SS10 as the Ford struggled a further suspension issue.

"I struggled with the dust for the last couple of kilometres," said the frustrated Solberg. "It's part of the game, unfortunately."

Henning Solberg is still in fifth for Stobart Ford, while Munchi's Ford driver Federico Villagra has leapt to sixth.

Villagra gained one place as Hirvonen's damaged suspension saw him drop three and a half minutes away from the leaders, and then another as his rally-long rival Per-Gunnar Andersson (Suzuki) made a small error in SS10.

Hirvonen is still running in eighth, ahead of Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson, despite the Briton suffering a puncture and a spin in the Aghia Triada stage.

Chris Atkinson would have been in line to move into the top six amid this morning's other dramas, had his Subaru not failed to start after SS8. Subaru have already confirmed that the Australian will rejoin for tomorrow's stages.

Suzuki's Toni Gardemeister holds 10th, just three seconds ahead of charging Citroen driver Urmo Aava. Gardemeister was delayed by a power steering problem this morning, while Aava was an impressive third-fastest in SS9 as he regained ground after a long stop with a puncture in the day's opening stage.

Two of the three stage wins this morning have gone to Stobart Ford's Gigi Galli, although the Italian is classified 30 minutes behind Sordo having missed most of Friday after retiring with suspension damage in SS2.

Leading positions after SS13:

Pos  Driver        Car      Time
 1.  Sordo         Citroen  2h04:54.6
 2.  Loeb          Citroen   +   16.4
 3.  P Solberg     Subaru    +   45.9
 4.  Latvala       Ford      +   47.4
 5.  H Solberg     Ford      + 1:00.6
 6.  Villagra      Ford      + 3:06.3
 7.  Andersson     Suzuki    + 3:10.8
 8.  Hirvonen      Ford      + 3:36.1
 9.  Wilson        Ford      + 3:39.7
10.  Gardemeister  Suzuki    + 3:53.4