SS4: Loeb takes lead, Solberg flies

Sebastien Loeb took the Acropolis Rally lead on stage four, Elikonas, while a storming stage win for Petter Solberg brought the Ford driver up to third, just 4.5s off first place.

Muddy conditions caused a major shake-up on the stage, with Loeb unhappy with his performance, and Jari-Matti Latvala, Mikko Hirvonen and Ott Tanak all sliding off the road briefly at the same junction.

Latvala’s excursion meant he fell to second place, 1.2s behind new leader Loeb.

"The splits were looking really, really, really good, I think we were ahead of Loeb," said Latvala. "But before one junction, the corner before was really, really muddy. I locked the front wheels and the engine stopped. I couldn’t turn into the corner, so I did a little overshoot. I lost maybe five to 10 seconds."

Loeb will have been surprised to learn that he was now leading, for he had been thoroughly unimpressed with his performance as he reached the stage finish.

"I don’t know why I was slow in this stage, I was pushing hard," Loeb mused. "I don’t know. A bad rhythm maybe."

His pessimism was not misplaced, for Loeb set an equal time to Citroen team-mate Hirvonen despite the Finn overshooting the tricky junction, and was 9.7s slower than dominant stage winner Solberg.

Given his handling issues so far this morning, Ford driver Solberg was thrilled by his surge in pace, which brought him to within 4.5s of leader Loeb.

"It was very muddy in there and the car worked very well in the mud," said Solberg. "Not a bad time. I’m very happy with that. I’m looking forward to getting the car even better in service."