Loeb still ahead after Petter spins

Sebastien Loeb emerged from the repeated Four Ways Crychan stage with a rally lead of 6.7 seconds, while Petter Solberg was left ruing an error he thinks cost him the chance to move ahead.

After a clean run through the preceding SS13 (Monument Hill), Loeb carried a four second advantage to the mixed surface Stage 14 - the stage on which his team-mate Sebastien Ogier retired earlier today.

As before, Loeb was the stage winner on the repeat pass, although his time was 16 seconds slower than it had been on SS10. “Terrible conditions, very, very slippery - much worse then this morning,” Loeb said at the stage end. “It’s incredible how much we were sliding. There was lots of mud and we had a few little moments, but we are here now.”

Solberg was 2.7sec slower that Loeb to set the second fastest time but the Norwegian felt he could have taken Loeb’s place were it not for a mistake. “I had a spin just after the tarmac section (11km) and ended up going backwards - it cost me about 10 seconds,” explained Solberg. “After that I needed to go for a big attack to get that time back. I gained a lot on the gravel, now I have to go on a big attack to get back on track for tomorrow.”

Jari-Matti Latvala was third quickest on the stage, to narrow the gap on his BP Ford Abu Dhabi team-mate to 6.8 seconds.