Loeb cruised through the second day under no real threat

The Citroen driver led Subaru's Petter Solberg by 43.1 seconds with four stages to go. Gigi Galli's Peugeot was third more than two minutes adrift.

Loeb's victory hopes were boosted on Friday when leader and main rival Marcus Gronholm ran into problems.

Rejoining with a 15-minute penalty, the Finn won four of the Saturday's eight stages in his Ford.

Loeb is on course for his fourth consecutive victory, which would put him in a commanding position in his quest for a third consecutive world title.

Solberg was the only driver to offer any sort of threat to Loeb on Saturday, but after a gearbox problem and a puncture on Friday, he chose the wrong tyres on Saturday morning.

That meant that even though he won two of the final four stages, he was not near enough to trouble Loeb.

Loeb did ease off as the day wore on, allowing Solberg to claw back a few seconds but the Frenchman remained firmly in control.

"We have a good lead so I chose to lose a bit of time to Petter and not take any risks," he said. "I hope tomorrow I can continue like this."

Solberg's brother Henning lies fourth in his Peugeot and shared victory in the 16th stage with his sibling.

Standings after second leg of Rally of Argentina