SS10: Loeb stamps his authority

Sebastien Loeb extended his Brother Rally New Zealand lead to 8.5 seconds as he set a faster time than Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen on the Mititai stage.

The world champion admitted that he was having to go flat-out to try and break his team-mate’s challenge, with Hirvonen determined to keep Loeb in his sights and make sure he is still allowed to fight for the win.

"I am pushing hard," said Loeb. "I took a little bit of risks. We hit a bridge a little bit, but everything seems to be OK on the car. We lost a little bit of time with that, but the rest of the stage was good.

"It was a little tricky on the hard tyres and it’s slippery. It’s very difficult to be on the limit. You lose it sometimes and there are some muddy places, so it’s really hard."

Hirvonen lost 1.8s to Loeb on the stage, to his slight confusion.

"I thought the stage was just perfect. I really pushed hard," said the puzzled Finn. "But we are losing some time now. I don’t know. Maybe I was just going sideways too much and didn’t have perfect lines."

The battle for third remained intense too, as rather than Petter Solberg storming away from Evgeny Novikov after taking the position, this time the M-Sport Ford came back at the works car, and got the gap down to a tiny 0.1s again in their squabble over third.

Stage victory went to the second works Ford of Jari-Matti Latvala, though he is still mired in eighth - over two minutes adrift of his next target.