At the close of Day Two, Sebastien Loeb retains an overall lead of 49.8 seconds on Mikko Hirvonen, who was not able to do much to diminish the gap from the rally leader today although he did take over second place from Dani Sordo.
Sordo remains in third position, but opening the roads on dry gravel this afternoon proved very costly to the Spaniard who not only saw the gap to Hirvonen widen to 46.2 seconds, but whose time loss as stage-opener allowed fourth-placed Petter Solberg to catch up greatly.
In the first morning stage at Anadiou Dam, Jari-Matti Latvala took first place in a time of 11 minutes 2.4 seconds, with Hirvonen 4.7secs behind in second and Loeb third.
Hirvonen responded on stage eight, winning by 1.5 seconds from Loeb in a time of 30:29.80 to leapfrog Sordo in the overall standings, but the Frenchman again underlined his class with victory on stage nine, the last of the morning session.
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It came despite a spin in the muddy conditions at Orkontas, with the Frenchman admitting: “I’m not taking massive risks but I’m pushing hard and had a spin in a slow hairpin, but still that’s a really good time.
“I didn’t lose much - five seconds I think - but we are still faster because I was in a really good driving rhythm.”
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