Intro:

Sebastien Loeb leads Petter Solberg by 10.2 seconds going into the final day of the Acropolis rally in Greece.

His closest challenger, Jari-Matti Latvala fell behind after a slow puncture during round six of the World Rally Championship season.

Script:

Day three of the Acropolis Rally began with defending world champion and current championship leader Sebastien Loeb holding a 6.5 second advantage over his closest challenger, Jari-Matti Latvala.

Loeb won the first stage of the day, special stage 10, in his Citroen, and took two more of the day's eight stages, extending the Frenchman's lead to 10.2 seconds by the end of the penultimate day of the rally.

Latvala threatened to challenge in the morning, winning stages 11 and 12, to cut Loeb's lead to a single second.

But it all came unstuck for the Finn on special stage 14, the first after the break.

His Ford Fiesta suffered a slow puncture to the right rear tyre after hitting a bank early in the stage.

Latvala attempted to carry on, but was forced to stop four kilometres from the end to change the wheel, after the deflating tyre had caused bodywork and brake damage.

He lost almost three and a half minutes to Loeb, who won the stage, and his damaged brakes cost time for the rest of the day.

He finished the day in fourth, 4 minutes 44.6 seconds off the pace.

Latvala's team-mate Petter Solberg took up the challenge for Ford, winning the final three stages of the day with Loeb second each time.

The Norwegian goes into the final day in second place, 10.2 seconds behind Loeb, with the Frenchman's Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen in third.

The drivers will tackle five more special stages on the final day.