Sebastien Loeb will head to the day-closing Mulhouse town centre stage tonight leading Rallye de France Alsace by 15.6s following his victory on the repeat of the Soultzeren-Pays Welche test.
Citroen ace Loeb had been coming under increasing pressure from Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala but his fastest time, by 3.1s over Latvala’s team-mate Petter Solberg, hands him a slightly more comfortable advantage.
Latvala, was third fastest, 3.2s down on Loeb, said: “In the dirty places where there is mud and gravel we are struggling but where it is clean then it is fine for us.”
Solberg, meanwhile, is 2.1s behind third-placed Mikko Hirvonen despite reporting a slight loss of time at a hairpin. Fellow Norwegian Mads Ostberg also dropped a few seconds after going off the road a few times.
The 4.65-kilometre Mulhouse stage goes live at 18:35hrs local time.