Starting the day some 28 second behind the Finnish driver, Loeb shared the lead with Latvala midway though the Friday action. As the Ford driver was first on the road throughout the day, he began losing precious seconds to the Frenchman later in the day. Loeb decided to attack in the final special stages and secure almost 30 seconds of cushion from Latvala heading to Day 3, when 6 more stages are scheduled to take place.
“I tried to push very, very hard and I couldn't do better than that. I hope it's a good choice. I don't like these regulations,” admitted the Frenchman after the day was over.
Ogier surged into 2nd place late on Friday, something that might not help him a lot on Saturday, when he'll start each stage ahead of Latvala (despite securing only 3 seconds of advantage over the Finn). Nevertheless, the Citroen Junior driver insisted his overtaking Latvala for 2nd place after SS13 is part of his team's plan.
Latvala will start tomorrow's stages from 3rd place, which means he'll have a considerable amount of grip – better, as compared to Loeb and Ogier – throughout the 6 stages on play. 4th overall was Petter Solberg (43 seconds behind Loeb), while followed by Dani Sordo, some 5 seconds further down the field.
Apart from the leading pack of 5 drivers, no one could really keep a leading pace on Friday, with Stobart's Matthew Wilson sitting more than 5 minutes behind, in 6th place. Munchi's Federico Villagra and Citroen's Kimi Raikkonen finished the day in 7th and 8th respectively, while followed by Henning Solberg and Xavier Pons.
Mikko Hirvonen will start tomorrow's running from 20th overall, some half an hour late as compared to the front-runners.
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