From wrc.com
Sébastien Loeb kept it neat and tidy through Saturday's six stages of Rally d'Italia - Sardegna to bring his Citroen C4 WRC back to Olbia with an overall lead of 29.4 seconds.
Running as first car through each of the day's stages Loeb reported no major problems at all and said his leading margin was about right to offset the disadvantage of running as first car again through Sunday's final five stages.
"A 30-second head start is not so bad, it's what I wanted to have - although it's probably the minimum," said Loeb. "We tried hard and did lose some time in the gravel but the car is feeling good so we'll have to see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully the stages won't be too loose and gravely."
The fastest driver through each of Saturday's stages, however, was Jari-Matti Latvala, who made up five places on the overall leader board to end the day joint second - tied with his BP-Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.
Sunday's road positions were determined by comparing the pair's results on the first stage of the rally - giving Latvala the dubious honour of tackling the stages before his team-mate Hirvonen.
Delighting his legions of Italian fans, Gigi Galli moved up from seventh to fourth after a trouble-free day at the wheel of his Stobart Ford Focus.
Having started the day second, Citroen's Dani Sordo finished fifth and struggled to explain why. "The feeling in the car is good and I can't really understand where the time is going," he said. "Yes, there was a lot of road cleaning in the morning - and in the afternoon too - but it didn't seem to affect Sebastien. Tomorrow I'll try to catch Galli."
After podium finishes on the last three WRC rounds, Subaru's Chris Atkinson is sixth.
Henning Solberg is seventh for the Munchi's Ford team and described his day as 'steady and solid' while Estonian Urmo Aava is eighth in his privately entered Citroen C4 WRC.
Sébastien Loeb kept it neat and tidy through Saturday's six stages of Rally d'Italia - Sardegna to bring his Citroen C4 WRC back to Olbia with an overall lead of 29.4 seconds.
Running as first car through each of the day's stages Loeb reported no major problems at all and said his leading margin was about right to offset the disadvantage of running as first car again through Sunday's final five stages.
"A 30-second head start is not so bad, it's what I wanted to have - although it's probably the minimum," said Loeb. "We tried hard and did lose some time in the gravel but the car is feeling good so we'll have to see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully the stages won't be too loose and gravely."
The fastest driver through each of Saturday's stages, however, was Jari-Matti Latvala, who made up five places on the overall leader board to end the day joint second - tied with his BP-Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.
Sunday's road positions were determined by comparing the pair's results on the first stage of the rally - giving Latvala the dubious honour of tackling the stages before his team-mate Hirvonen.
Delighting his legions of Italian fans, Gigi Galli moved up from seventh to fourth after a trouble-free day at the wheel of his Stobart Ford Focus.
Having started the day second, Citroen's Dani Sordo finished fifth and struggled to explain why. "The feeling in the car is good and I can't really understand where the time is going," he said. "Yes, there was a lot of road cleaning in the morning - and in the afternoon too - but it didn't seem to affect Sebastien. Tomorrow I'll try to catch Galli."
After podium finishes on the last three WRC rounds, Subaru's Chris Atkinson is sixth.
Henning Solberg is seventh for the Munchi's Ford team and described his day as 'steady and solid' while Estonian Urmo Aava is eighth in his privately entered Citroen C4 WRC.