Petter Solberg was the fastest driver through SS8 - the repeated 27km Sestrimo - to slash the time difference between himself and second placed Dani Sordo from 26.8sec to 13.1sec.
The Norwegian said he was ’back in the fight’ after finding something wrong with his Citroen at the midday service but would not elaborate on what the problem was.
Solberg’s car was fitted with four hard compound tyres for SS8, which turned out to be completely dry. But with rain an ever-present threat in the mountains, a variety of options were employed by the teams. Loeb’s car was fitted with soft tyres all round, while Sordo and Ogier had soft fronts and hard rears.
Ford drivers Hirvonen and Latvala had hard compound tyres all round. Hirvonen had an encouraging run to set the fourth fastest time, but there were problems for Latvala who lost his power steering half way through.
Overall standings after SS8:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sébastien LOEB | Citroën C4 WRC | 1h48m50.5s |
| 02 | Dani SORDO | Citroën C4 WRC | +33.9s |
| 03 | Petter SOLBERG | Citroën C4 WRC | +47.0s |
| 04 | Sébastien OGIER | Citroën C4 WRC | +2m00.7s |
| 05 | Mikko HIRVONEN | Ford Focus WRC | +2m35.1s |
| 06 | Jari-Matti LATVALA | Ford Focus WRC | +2m53.1s |
| 07 | Per Gunnar ANDERSSON | Ford Focus WRC | +4m11.3s |
| 08 | Frigyes TURAN | Peugeot 307 WRC | +4m46.7s |
| 09 | Matthew WILSON | Ford Focus WRC | +6m29.0s |
| 10 | Henning SOLBERG | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +8m40.5s |
| 11 | Thierry NEUVILLE | Citroën C2 S1600 | +9m32.2s |
| 12 | Petar GYOSHEV | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX | +9m34.0s |
| 13 | Hans WEIJS | Citroën C2 S1600 | +10m22.6s |
| 14 | Yeray LEMES | Renault Clio S1600 | +11m05.2s |
| 15 | Denis KUIPERS | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +11m07.4s |