Team orders could cost Loeb world title
Loeb and Subaru rival Petter Solberg are fighting for the drivers' title with just a point separating them, but Citroen also have a battle on their hands in the manufacturers' championship.
They lead Peugeot by five points and have urged Loeb to avoid taking too many risks in his battle for victory with Solberg to prevent a double disappointment in Wales this weekend.
Loeb admitted: "I have to finish for the manufacturers' championship. They told me to push, but to be careful. It's difficult to know what to do."
And the Frenchman initially seemed to take heed of that plea, which came after a blistering start to the first full day of the rally saw him win two stages to overtake Solberg as overall leader.
Solberg won the next pair of stages to lead by 7.8 seconds motivated by a refusal to believe his rival is taking it easy.
The Norwegian, who is co-driven by Welshman Phil Mills, is not convinced by the team orders claim and suggested the threat may be a ploy to score a psychological victory.
His theory appeared to ring true when Loeb clocked the fastest time on stage six to claw some time back, with the 29-year-old now just 6.2secs adrift.
"If Loeb is not pushing pretty hard then that's good for me but I don't believe it anyway," he said. "If he has relaxed he's not really shown it. I think it's a psychological mind game he's still going for the drivers' title.
"There's a lot of talk that Loeb is fighting for the manufacturers' title now, and that he's not going to push me for the drivers'.
"But come on, whatever Loeb says I think he's here to win. So do you really think I'm going to relax?"
Citroen boss Guy Frequelin insisted the team's cause must come above Loeb's, especially after Carlos Sainz's retirement, and refused to contemplate a retirement for his title challenger.
He said: "Now we have no second car we need both our other cars to finish. Maybe it is bad for the sport and bad for the fight between Sebastien and Solberg. It is very clear that the manufacturers' championship comes before the drivers' championship. We cannot take risks."
The title battle has been reduced to a two-way scrap between Solberg and Loeb - neither of whom have won the championship before after Sainz retired yesterday morning.
The Spaniard managed to put out a fire in his on-board television camera before stage two but crashed out on the following stage after a lapse in concentration.
That ruled him out of the championship battle as team-mate Loeb, who is tied on points with Sainz in the lead, has won more rallies this season.
Sainz, a two-time former champion, was still positive about his season despite today's disappointment, saying: "In general I am quite happy about the season. It's unfortunate it ended with this but I'd like people to remember the whole year instead."
Sainz was not the only front-runner to suffer yesterday with an accident forcing outgoing champion Marcus Gronholm into retirement and Markko Martin suffering an engine problem as the pair battled for third place.
Their misfortune, however, gave Colin McRae the chance to finish on the podium in his last rally for Citroen before taking a sabbatical next year. The Scot began the day down in eighth but made steady progress despite complaining of brake problems to end up fourth and just over 10secs behind Subaru's Tommi Makinen in third.
Solberg reinforced his lead on last night's short super-special stage in Cardiff, winning the 2.5km sprint to move eight seconds clear of Loeb, who clocked the fourth quickest time.
Makinen's second-best time on stage seven stretched his lead over fourth-placed McRae slightly to 11.4secs, while closing him to 1min 24.2secs behind Loeb.
Cork pair, John O'Leary/Michael Coleman (Mitsubishi) are 57th in general classification.
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