Marcus Grönholm’s hopes of a second consecutive victory in Rally Japan took a setback today when the Finn lost time to arch rival Sébastien Loeb and dropped to second in the overall standings. Grönholm’s Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen maintains a comfortable third position, but Loeb now looks set to become the most successful driver in the history of the sport if he claims his 27th world rally victory tomorrow.

Grönholm started the day with a 10.5 second advantage over Loeb and consolidated his position with two fastest stage times early this morning. However, in the fourth stage, a spin lost him more than 23 seconds and the lead of the event. He then went off the road in the following 16 kilometre stage, dropping another 10 seconds and extending the deficit to nearly 30 seconds.

Despite winning three of the remaining stages, the closeness of competition meant Grönholm was simply unable to reel in sufficient time to overhaul Loeb. As a consequence, the French Citroën Xsara driver heads into the final leg with a 25.6 second lead after another faultless drive.

Mikko Hirvonen has maintained position in the second Focus, the Finn happy with his pace and secure in third position with nearly three minutes in hand to Subaru’s Chris Atkinson. The Australian started the day in sixth and was lucky to escape with just cosmetic damage to the car when he went off the road and hit a tree. Despite the loss of time, he was locked in a close battle with Manfred Stohl (Peugeot 307 WRC) this afternoon and has powered into fourth in the lead Impreza WRC.

After yesterday’s brake problems, Petter Solberg has climbed only one position, into seventh, but is battling hard with young Spaniard Dani Sordo (Citroën Xsara). The duo are split by just 6.1 seconds going into the final leg.

Rally Japan – Results after Leg 2
 

1	Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena	Citroën Xsara WRC	2 hr 27 min 45.7sec
2	Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 28 min 11.3sec
3	Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 29 min 28.8sec
4	Chris Atkinson/Glenn Macneall	Subaru Impreza WRC	2 hr 32 min 09.8sec
5	Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor	Peugeot 307 WRC	2 hr 32 min 26.1sec
6	Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti	Citroën Xsara WRC	2 hr 33 min 11.3sec

 
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