Loeb set to take French Rally title

Sebastien Loeb is set for victory at the French Rally after dominating the second day in Corsica.

The Citroen driver was so quick his title rival Marcus Gronholm admitted he had no answers as the battle for the championship hotted up.

Loeb stretched his lead to 27.5 seconds going into the final day and left Ford driver Gronholm all but conceding defeat.

Gronholm told www.autosport.com: "Incredible - I cannot go faster. It's not possible now."

Gronholm then suffered a mechanical problem ahead of the final stage but was able to finish the day in second.

Loeb, who had added 23 seconds to his lead during the day, said: "It's been a fantastic day. I've been pushing very hard all day to increase my lead because this morning it was very small. Now it's much better for tomorrow.

"It's looking good. The car is going perfectly, absolutely no mistakes, no problems. Tomorrow the stages are some that we know a bit better so I hope we are able to find a good rhythm and keep our position."

Loeb's team-mate Dani Sordo took his first stage win of the rally but remains 33.1 seconds behind Gronholm.

But there could be a change in fourth as Francois Duval's Citroen had gearbox and brake problems and he now leads the Ford of fifth-placed Jari-Matti Latvala by 2.4secs.

Latvala said: "Unfortunately Duval is having problems but he has been all the time faster than I have. We'll see what happens, we still have a long day tomorrow."

Latvala leads Petter Solberg by seven seconds after the Subaru driver had understeer problems.

Solberg's team-mate Chris Atkinson remains in seventh despite a spin on very worn tyres during the day's penultimate stage, with Xevi Pons (Subaru), Jan Kopecky (Skoda) and Henning Solberg (Ford) rounding out the top 10.