Lead gives Loeb the confidence at Rally Italy

The Frenchman began yesterday with an advantage of 33.2secs in his Citroen DS3 WRC. Despite having to clean the road of the loose surface gravel for those running behind, Loeb was able to minimise his time loss throughout the day.

Sebastien Loeb lost nearly five seconds off his lead at Rally d'Italia Sardinia yesterday, but said his 28.3-second advantage should be enough to ensure his second win of the season.

"It was a great day, a very hard day also, but a great day," Loeb said. "It's really difficult to accept losing time when you are cleaning the road in difficult conditions, but we had to keep concentrated and continue to believe it would be OK.

"Twenty-eight seconds should be enough, but it's still a difficult day."

Loeb began yesterday with an advantage of 33.2secs in his Citroen DS3 WRC. Despite having to clean the road of the loose surface gravel for those running behind, Loeb was able to minimise his time loss throughout the day.

Loeb, the world-title winner for the last seven years, is chasing his fourth victory on the Mediterranean island.

An intense battle for second is under way. Mikko Hirvonen, Sebastien Ogier and Petter Solberg are separated by a little more than 10 seconds heading into today's final four stages.

Hirvonen is second in his Ford Fiesta, 6.3secs up on the Citroen driver Ogier, with Solberg a further 4.9secs behind in his DS3.

"Sebastien was very fast in the last two stages and I wasn't really able to take much time out of him," Hirvonen said.

"Petter and Ogier are very close and we will all have to go flat-out and that will keep the pressure on Sebastien. You never know what will happen."

Solberg suggested his time loss with a puncture on yesterday's second stage ended his hopes of victory but believes he remains on course for his first podium of 2011. "Generally I'm very happy and feeling very good pushing like this," he said.

Mads Ostberg was fifth overnight having overcome handling issues early and a minor scare on the final test when a steering arm worked loose on his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta.

* Agency