Sordo closes gap on Loeb

World champion Sebastien Loeb saw his lead cut on the second morning of Rally Germany.

Loeb, a four-time winner here, began the day 42.7 seconds clear of Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo, but after the first two stages in Rier the gap had been cut to 27.4 seconds.

Sordo was just under a second away from claiming stage nine, which was won by Jan Kopecky in his Skoda with Loeb third, but Sordo then took stage 10 by 6.8 seconds from Loeb.

The Citroen works cars were the class of the field and their nearest challenger, Toni Gardemeister, was two minutes 18 seconds behind the leader in his privateer Citroen.

Marcus Gronholm, who trails Loeb by 29 points in the championship, was fourth, two minutes 38 seconds back.

Manfred Stohl was in fifth in his OMV Peugeot, Mikko Hirvonen‘s Ford sixth, Red Bull Skoda‘s Andreas Aigner seventh and Stephane Sarrazin rounded out the points-paying positions for Subaru.

But ex-world champion Petter Solberg‘s Rally Germany challenge is over after he retired with mechanical problems on stage nine.

Rookie Briton Matthew Wilson, in his Stobart Ford, continues to go backwards, lying in 17th place, almost 14 minutes shy of Loeb.