The Frenchman had gone into Rally Norway holding a two-point lead over Gronholm but saw any hopes of retaining that advantage evaporate on day two when he crashed twice and dropped back from third to 16th.

The Citroen driver recovered to finish the event 14th but was six places off the final points scoring position.

Hirvonen took his second World Rally win after holding the lead from the start of the event to the finish as he led home a Ford one-two-three.

Gronholm was 9.5 seconds behind his team-mate but was happy as both Ford drivers moved ahead of Loeb in the championship standings.

Gronholm now leads the championship chase after three rallies with a total of 24 points, Hirvonen is second on 20 and Loeb third with 18.

Gronholm, who won the final stage of the rally but could not close the gap enough to be his team-mate, said: "It's good to take second place, it would have been nice to win, but what can you do?"

Henning Solberg beat younger brother Petter to third place with the Ford driver edging the final spot on the podium by 16.5 seconds from the Subaru driver.

Cumbria's Matthew Wilson had a rally to forget after the suspension on his Stobart Ford was damaged on the opening day.

Wilson was able to rejoin the rally but was ranked 26th at the end of the event and is still waiting to score his first world championship point of the season.