Reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb has moved into the lead of the Rally de Portugal after the second day of competition. Yesterday’s leader, Mikko Hirvonen, lost time running first on the road today sweeping away the loose gravel; he holds second position 26.8 seconds adrift. Third is held by Dani Sordo.

Reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb has moved into the lead of the Rally de Portugal after the second day of competition. Yesterday’s leader, Mikko Hirvonen, lost time running first on the road today sweeping away the loose gravel; he holds second position 26.8 seconds adrift. Third is held by Dani Sordo.

Today’s route included two loops of three identical stages covering 72.59 competitive kilometres and the scene was set for an epic battle between Hirvonen, Sordo, Loeb and the returning Marcus Grönholm. However, Grönholm rolled in the opening stage and was forced to retire with overheating problems, leaving the battle to the Ford and Citroëns. 2008 FIA Junior World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier was also forced out in the first stage, the Frenchman reportedly suffering with a broken steering arm.

Loeb has had an incredible day, winning all six stages to come from third to overnight leader. The Frenchman moved up to second after the first stage, following Grönholm’s accident, and then overhauled Hirvonen in stage 9. Throughout the day he has extended his lead and while he will have to open the roads on Sunday, he has a healthy advantage to take into the closing five stages.

Hirvonen has run without problems but the disadvantage of running first on the road has hampered the Finn. He does however have a comfortable 29.6 second advantage over third placed Sordo. Petter Solberg has climbed to fourth, the Norwegian losing some time in the opening stage stuck behind Grönholm and then more when the windscreen wipers stopped working. As a consequence, he is over a minute adrift of Sordo. Matthew Wilson has enjoyed a good day, his only problem a stall at the start of stage 10. He holds fifth but is in the thick of a battle with team-mate Henning Solberg, who is just nine-tenths of a second behind in sixth. Evgeny Novikov and Mads Østberg, in seventh and eighth respectively, are also only split by eight-tenths of a second.

Rally de Portugal - Results after Day 2

  1 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 2 hr 56 min 15.6sec
2 Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 2 hr 56 min 42.4sec
3 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 2 hr 57 min 12.0sec
4 Petter Solberg/Phil Mills Citroën Xsara WRC 2 hr 58 min 15.2sec
5 Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin Ford Focus RS WRC 2 hr 59 min 38.5sec
6 Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud Ford Focus RS WRC 2 hr 59 min 39.4sec
7 Evgeny Novikov/Dale Moscatt Citroën C4 WRC 3 hr 01 min 15.0sec 
8 Mads Østberg/ Ole Kristian Unnerud Subaru Impreza WRC 3 hr 01 min 15.8sec