With three stages of the rally remaining, Loeb’s lead over his second-placed team-mate Dani Sordo stood at 1min 17.8sec, while Sordo was 1min 12.2sec ahead of Ford Focus driver Hirvonen in third.

Chris Atkinson extended his advantage over Henning Solberg a little - the gap between them now up to 3.9sec - while Sebastien Ogier was quicker than Matthew Wilson to keep their gap to 27.1sec.

After Arigna crews drove to the last of the morning loop of stages before service - the 13.51km Lough Gill.