Puncture can't stop Loeb in Greece
Sebastien Loeb maintained his place at the top of the standings after coming back from a slow puncture early on day two of the Acropolis Rally in Greece.
The Citroen driver recovered from the setback during the ninth special stage to set the fastest time in the penultimate stage and finish ahead of the chasing pack despite not winning a single stage of the race.
His Spanish team-mate Dani Sordo did not have the same luck however. Sordo overtook Loeb after three stages of the race and was in second place until the penultimate special, but suffered his own tyre problems to fall to seventh overall, five minutes 33.6 seconds off the pace.
Norwegian brothers Petter and Henning Solberg finished second and third respectively. Subaru driver Petter came in 28.7secs behind while older brother Henning was 1:05.30s off the pace of the leader in his Stobart-Ford.
World Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen dominated the second day, winning three stages and moving from seventh to fourth overall to come in 3:05.6s behind Loeb.
The BP Ford driver holds a three-point lead over the Frenchman in the overall standings.
Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala endured problems of his own when he experienced turbo problems on stage 11 to leave him nine minutes off the lead.
The drivers take on seven more stages in Sunday’s final day of action.
