After Jari-Matti Latvala’s attack on SS5, Dani Sordo put his foot down on the two stages which followed - extending the gap to the chasing Finn and moving from fourth to second place.
After relaxing a little on SS5, Sebastien Loeb was back to his stage winning best on SS6 with his Citroen Total team-mate his closest rival. Sordo’s time was enough to move him ahead of Petter Solberg into third place.
Better was to come on SS7, however, when an outright stage win for Sordo edged him ahead of his Citroen rival Sebastien Ogier and into second - 21.2sec behind Loeb.
Latvala meanwhile was sixth and fifth fastest on SS5 and SS6, to hold fifth place in the overall standings.
Overall standings after SS7:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sébastien LOEB | Citroën C4 WRC | 1h03m55.1s |
| 02 | Dani SORDO | Citroën C4 WRC | +21.2s |
| 03 | Sébastien OGIER | Citroën C4 WRC | +23.0s |
| 04 | Petter SOLBERG | Citroën C4 WRC | +34.4s |
| 05 | Jari-Matti LATVALA | Ford Focus WRC | +46.0s |
| 06 | Mikko HIRVONEN | Ford Focus WRC | +1m27.1s |
| 07 | Kimi RAIKKONEN | Citroën C4 WRC | +2m56.8s |
| 08 | Frigyes TURAN | Peugeot 307 WRC | +4m18.8s |
| 09 | Federico VILLAGRA | Ford Focus WRC | +4m40.7s |
| 10 | Matthew WILSON | Ford Focus WRC | +5m00.5s |
| 11 | Ken BLOCK | Ford Focus WRC | +5m27.7s |
| 12 | Khalid AL QASSIMI | Ford Focus WRC | +5m41.5s |
| 13 | Andreas MIKKELSEN | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +6m22.8s |
| 14 | Henning SOLBERG | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +6m22.9s |
| 15 | Eyvind BRYNILDSEN | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +6m52.4s |