“It was a great day, a very hard day also, but a great day. It’s really difficult to accept losing time when you are cleaning the road in difficult conditions but we had to keep concentrated and continue to believe it would be okay. Twenty-eight seconds should be enough but it’s still a difficult day tomorrow.” said Loeb.
Loeb leads the rally into the short final day by 23.8secs over Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen. Road sweeping didn't seem to be a problem today. He was thrown a lifeline after his closest challenger this morning, Petter Solberg, suffered a slow puncture on SS10 and dropped 11secs to Loeb. Hirvonen took second from Solberg over SS11, them set about dismantling Loeb's lead. He started to do just that, taking nearly nine seconds out of Loeb over SS12. Loeb hit back over the repeat runs, gaining back two seconds on SS13. Hirvonen then took 1.5 secs out of Loeb on today's final stage, SS14.
Behind the fight for victory, there is an equally, if not more exciting, fight for second place. Hirvonen, Solberg and Ogier are only separated by less that 16secs. Solberg occupied second after SS9, but a puncture lost him a lot of time, an Hirvonen capitalised on the next stage, taking second place. Solberg made a small mistake on SS12, losing third to Ogier.
Mads Ostberg holds fifth going into the final day, and is 44secs ahead of MINI driver Dani Sordo, who has sixth. Sordo has been sixth all day, but the throttle problem that dogged team-mate Kris Meeke on Day 1 surfaced in Sordo's car during the afternoon.
“We’re very happy with Dani’s performance, he’s pleased with the car and has had nothing negative to say. For him it’s all okay and we’re obviously very pleased.” said David Wilcock of Sordo's pace.
Meeke returned this morning, but only made it to SS10, the second stage of the day. Meeke took ninth fastest time over SS9, but a water leak forced him to stop to save the engine. A split water pipe is thought to be at fault, the legacy of his Day 1 crash. He is expected to restart tomorrow.
“Kris has had a water leak. In order to save the engine he stopped on the stage but until we get the car back [to the service park] we don’t know what has caused it. It’s probably not a coincidence that he had an accident yesterday. We think it’s a broken water pipe but until we see the car we don’t know.” said Wilcock.
Stobart driver Matthew Wilson is ninth after his Day 1 brake problem, however the problem has not returned to the 24-year-old's car.
Motorsport Italia driver Armindo Araujo had an unusual problem in his MINI today, with a 1L water bottle working loose and rolling into the driver's foot well during SS12. He currently sits 13th overall, just behind UAE driver Khalid Al-Qassimi in his Team Abu Dhabi Fiesta RS WRC.
Far behind the fight for second, if there was a 'Drive Of The Day' award, Jari-Matti Latvala would have taken it hands down. Fastest on every stage today bar one, Latvala seemed to put his SS1 roll behind him. His fastest time came over SS10, taking 8.7secs out of his team-mate Hirvonen. Latvala's blinding pace has left him in 26th place overall.
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