Sebastien Loeb remains in the lead of the Rally Catalunya Costa Daurada, the twelfth round in the 2007
FIA World Rally Championship, following the second leg on Saturday.
The
Citroen man began the day with an 11.3 second cushion over his team-mate,
Daniel Sordo and while he only won one of the four stages that made up the morning loop, he did enough to increase his advantage.
As such he returned to the mid-day service area at Port Aventura with a 14.3 second lead, while Marcus Gronholm, who is his chief championship rival, remained third, just under 50 seconds further back.
In the afternoon the situation again remained pretty stable and while Seb again only won one of the four tests - repeats of those held this morning - he is still comfortably on course to take the victory and the maximum ten points.
The Frenchman will take a 12.8 seconds advantage over Sordo into the third and final day, while Gronholm’s Ford Focus WRC is 43.6 seconds adrift.
Sordo for his part had another strong day in the second C4 WRC and while Marcus did manage to close the gap ever so slightly - down from around 40 seconds overnight to 30 at the end of today’s 120 competitive kilometres - in reality the Spaniard has done more than enough to ensure he takes the runners-up spot.
Sordo once again set some strong times, including winning SS10 and SS12, as well as posting four third best efforts, one fourth and one fifth.
Gronholm meanwhile was a lot more comfortable on day 2 and with conditions more consistent - and generally dry, bar for the first two stages, he won four of the day’s eight tests.
It wasn’t enough though to make any real impression on the two Citroens in front and the Finn conceded that they were just too far in front.
He will now be keen just to get to the finish and take third and minimise the potential damage to his lead in the drivers’ championship. If they finish like they currently are, Gronholm’s cushion will go down from 10 points to 6.
