Sordo's tyre problems put Loeb ahead

The Citroen number two had moved up to first when Loeb picked up a puncture during the morning.

But in the second loop of Saturday stages it was Sordo's turn to have tyre issues. He completed SS11 with one puncture and one delaminated tyre, and suffered a further puncture in SS12.

He struggled through the stage with his damage rubber, losing over 40 seconds, and still has one more stage and a road section to complete.

Sordo has retained second place, but is now 12 seconds behind Loeb.

Petter Solberg is just 25.6 seconds off the lead in third place in the new Subaru, ahead of Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford).

Jari-Matti Latvala has tumbled to eighth place having now been slowed through two stages with a turbo problem, although he was optimistic that he would be able to rectify it on the longer road section prior to SS13.

The Suzuki and Munchi's Ford teams have also hit trouble this afternoon. Federico Villagra - who had been running a strong sixth for Munchi's - retired with broken suspension in SS11, while his rally-long rival Per-Gunner Andersson parked his Suzuki with the same problem in the next stage.

Toni Gardemeister has been struggling with turbo issues in the second Suzuki and is now ninth.