Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb has powered into the lead of ADAC Rallye Deutschland, the 10th round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Marcus Grönholm has climbed to second in the Ford Focus, while yesterday’s leader, François Duval (Citroën Xsara), has been battling hard to retain third position.

Today’s leg is the longest of the event and took in two loops of four stages, two based in the Saarland region and two in the daunting Baumholder military ranges. Conditions remained dry throughout the leg, making tyre choice less difficult, however the nature of the stages demanded inch-perfect driving.

Sébastien Loeb, five time winner of Rallye Deutschland, started the day in second position, just 1.3 seconds adrift of Duval. However, the Frenchman took the lead when his rival spun twice in the first stage and then lost more time when he stalled the engine in the following test. He dropped to fourth overall and increased the deficit to 15.2 seconds. Duval managed to climb back to third, despite a hard-fought battle with Mikko Hirvonen (Ford), and the duo remain locked in a fight for the final podium position split by 5.1 seconds.

Marcus Grönholm once again made a slow start but the Finn holds second overall after a trouble-free day of competition. Behind fourth-placed team-mate Hirvonen, Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia) has moved one position up the leaderboard into fifth but is battling hard with Toni Gardemeister (Citroën Xsara), who lost time this morning when he went off the road. They are split by only 2.7 seconds. Petter Solberg (Subaru) has climbed from ninth to seventh, but the Subaru driver has still been suffering with some steering problems. He does however have a comfortable lead over fellow Subaru driver Xavier Pons, who rounds off the top eight.

After his off-road excursion yesterday, Chris Atkinson (Subaru) continues to move up the leaderboard and is 10th overnight after setting two fastest stage times today. Leading retirements from the leg include Manfred Stohl (Citroën Xsara), the Austrian out with engine failure, and Henning Solberg, who once again hit a rock and broke the suspension.

Rallye Deutschland - Results after Leg 2
 

1	Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	2 hr 48 min 40.4sec
2	Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 49 min 18.2sec
3	François Duval/Patrick Pivato	Citroën Xsara WRC	2 hr 49 min 30.8sec
4	Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 49 min 35.9sec
5	Jan Kopecký/Filip Schovánek	Škoda Fabia WRC	2 hr 51 min 29.1sec
6	Toni Gardemeister/Jakke Honkanen	Citroën Xsara WRC	2 hr 51 min 31.8sec
7	Petter Solberg/Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	2 hr 51 min 47.5sec
8	Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo	Subaru Impreza WRC	2 hr 52 min 56.8sec

 
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