Loeb overcomes problems to pull clear

World championship leader Sebastien Loeb overcame a jittery morning to assert his authority on the Rally of Turkey.

The Frenchman, driving a Citroen, briefly lost the lead to Peugeot rival Marcus Gronholm but responded in style to take a 15.9-second lead into the final day.

Loeb held a slender overnight lead from Gronholm and pulled clear this morning with a win on stage eight, leaving his advantage at over 16secs.

But that gap was wiped out on the following stage, with Loeb incurring a 10-second penalty for a jump start before a lacklustre drive lost him a further 13secs on Gronholm, who won the stage.

But Loeb quickly showed he was in no mood to accept second best.

He won stage 10 by over four seconds from Peugeot driver Gronholm to trim the Finn’s cushion to just two-and-a-half seconds.

On the following stage world championship leader Loeb was a massive 16.5secs faster than Gronholm to claim a 14-second advantage at the top.

World champion Petter Solberg won stage 12 but Loeb nevertheless gained more ground on Gronholm, with another two seconds to add to his advantage, although there was nothing to separate the pair on the last stage of the day.

Despite winning stage 12, Solberg is in a distant third place as he continues to suffer from the time he lost yesterday.

A heavy landing damaged an air intake and cut his power, costing Solberg around 45secs which continues to keep him out of the battle for top spot.

The Subaru driver is 50.4secs adrift in third and realistically needs problems to strike Loeb and Gronholm if he is to claim a third win of the season.

Solberg said: “The guys at the front are fighting for first and second, but in my position I’m not really involved in a big fight.

“I have to keep pushing all the time in case the guys at the front make any mistakes, but my pace is better than this morning.”

Ford’s Francois Duval suffered mechanical trouble this afternoon to drop him out of fourth place almost as soon as he had fought his way ahead of Citroen’s Carlos Sainz.

The Belgian is fifth but four minutes behind Loeb and two minutes adrift of fourth-place man Sainz, who himself suffered problems today.

Duval said: “About five kilometres after the start I lost drive to the right front wheel.

“We tried to make repairs after the finish but the same thing happened again just after the start of the next stage. There was nothing I could do apart from lock the differentials and drive as fast as I could.

“I feel a little demoralised because everything was going so well this morning.”

In the junior class, Darlington’s Guy Wilks recovered from losing five minutes courtesy of two separate penalties to reach fifth spot, just two minutes off the lead.