Citroën’s reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb has powered into the lead of Rally Argentina and looks poised to claim his fifth consecutive win in South America and fifth straight win this season. Team-mate Dani Sordo holds second with Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala moving into third position.

The second day took the competitors to some of the season’s classic stages high in the Traslasierra mountains where, historically, the rally has been won and lost.

Loeb started the day in third position, 16.3 seconds adrift of the lead, but a string of fastest times saw him overhaul his rivals and take the lead before the mid-day service. The Frenchman went on to win two of the repeated four stages during the afternoon, before returning to the super special stage in Cordoba, and overnights with an 58.6 second advantage.

Team-mate Sordo was overhauled by Mikko Hirvonen and held third for most of the day, until Hirvonen was forced out of the rally with overheating problems. Until the car is recovered back to the service park, the team cannot confirm whether the Finn will re-start the final day in the hope of scoring points in the Manufacturers’ Championship.

Behind the Citroën one-two, Latvala has climbed from sixth to third. The Finn has not been without problems however and was forced to drive four stages without the bonnet, it having flown off when the bonnet pins worked loose.

Petter Solberg has had a tougher run today. The Norwegian was reportedly down on power in the high altitude stages, sustained a puncture, suffered with overheating and then a spin. Even though he retains fourth, he has lost touch with the leaders and is nearly three minutes adrift.

Brother Henning is fifth with Argentina’s Federico Villagra in sixth. Matthew Wilson has retained seventh and Mikko Hirvonen is eighth in the results, until it is known whether he will re-start.

Rally Argentina - Results after Day 2

1 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena                     Citroën C4 WRC          3 hr 26 min 03.7s
2 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti                              Citroën C4 WRC           3 hr 27 min 02.3s
3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila                  Ford Focus RS WRC    3 hr 27 min 43.8s
4 Petter Solberg/Phil Mills                            Citroën Xsara WRC       3 hr 28 min 44.0s
5 Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud                 Ford Focus RS WRC    3 hr 29 min 27.7s
6 Federico Villagra/J P Companc                   Ford Focus RS WRC    3 hr 31 min 12.7s
7 Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin                      Ford Focus RS WRC    3 hr 31 min 30.7s
8 Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen                   Ford Focus RS WRC    3 hr 42 min 01.3s