From the World Rally Championship

Sebastien Loeb will take a lead of 4.8s into the final day of Wales Rally GB as the seven-time world champion closes on his eighth victory of the season in his factory Citroen C4 WRC.

However, Petter Solberg has vowed to maintain his bid for his first win since 2005 in his privately-run C4 over the last four stages on Sunday.

Loeb started Saturday’s opening test 1.8 seconds in front of Solberg but was initially unable to match the Norwegian, who claimed a brace of fastest stage times to edge clear.

But Solberg had no answer to Loeb - who was running first on the road - on the 11.15 kilometres of asphalt on the Four Ways Crychan stage and claimed that his rival had taken excessive ‘cuts’ through corners to drag mud and other debris onto the sealed stage surface to impede him.

Loeb, who won the stage by 6.4s to go 5.3s ahead of Solberg, brushed off the suggestion when quizzed at the remote service halt at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells, where he reported overshooting a junction and stalling his engine on stage nine, before spinning on stage 11, which Solberg won to narrow Loeb’s advantage to 2.5s.

Three more stage wins for Loeb on Saturday afternoon appeared to make the Frenchman’s win a certainty, only for Solberg to beat him on the second run through Halfway to keep the fight alive heading into Sunday.

While Solberg’s hopes of victory remain in the balance he can at least console himself with the fact that Sebastien Ogier’s crash on Saturday’s opening stage has handed him a golden opportunity to claim second place in the final drivers’ standings.

Jari-Matti Latvala can deny Solberg the runner-up spot in the final table providing he gets ahead of his works Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen and into third place on Sunday.

At the completion of Saturday’s stages, Latvala is 8.6s adrift of Hirvonen, who dropped time on stage 11 when he had to slow for a few errant sheep that had wandered onto the stage. Latvala also lost ground when his car’s launch control failed at the start of stage 15.

On what could be his final appearance in the WRC for Citroen, Dani Sordo holds fifth overnight having lost ground with an overshoot in the morning.

Classification after day 2:
1. Loeb-Elena (Citroen C4 Wrc) in 2’31’08”5
2. P.Solberg-Patterson (Citroen C4 Wrc) a 4”6
3. Hirvonen-Lehtinen (Ford Focus Wrc) a 1’26”9
4. Latvala-Anttila (Ford Focus Wrc) a 1’36”2
5. Sordo-Vallejo (Citroen C4 Wrc) a 1’51”1
6. H. Solberg-Prévot (Ford Focus Wrc) a 4’58”5
7. Wilson-Martin (Ford Focus Wrc) a 6’47”0
8. Raikkonen-Lindstrom (Citroen C4 Wrc) a 8’30”2
9. Ostberg-Andersson (Subaru Impreza Wrx) a 11’00”1
10. Mikkelsen-Floene (Subaru Impreza Wrx) a 11’00”1
Etc.