Loeb's uncharacteristic spill coupled with his team mate Dani Sordo's stall, allowed Mikko Hirvonen to win his first stage and peg back the front two - albeit only marginally.

“The rain is easing a little but it’s still tricky and there’s lots of water on the road,” Loeb said. “We got good information from our gravel crew but I still had a surprise in one section and went off a bit onto the grass. Now I have a vibration in the car - it’s maybe mud in the wheel, or it’s damaged. Maybe I have to change it, but it’s okay.”

Loeb went off about 20km from the start - close to where Sordo endured a scare. “The engine stopped on a hairpin and we dropped about 10 seconds before we could get going again,” Sordo said. “After that the feeling was fine.”

Hirvonen’s stage win moved him two seconds closer to Sordo on the overall standings, but he still trails second by 1m 15.7s.

“The conditions are still tricky, but I won’t back off too much because I don’t want to lose my driving rhythm. It was a steady drive but I’ll keep on going,” said Hirvonen.

Jari-Matti Latvala set the third fastest time despite completing the stage with a broken right-hand front wheel.

“We made a small change to the set up by fitting a stiffer rear anti-roll bar,” said Latvala. “I was faster than this morning but I still have a safety margin. You need a lot of confidence on these roads.”

Chris Atkinson was fourth fastest and took another 20 second bite out of the gap to Henning Solberg.

“We caught a big downpour but we had an okay run,” he said. “I’m not looking at the split times. I’m driving my own rally and learning the car.”

Sebastien Ogier narrowed the gap on Matthew Wilson to just 1.3sec.

“No problems in there - for me the priority is to finish the rally,” said Ogier. “Earlier I wanted to catch Henning but now that’s impossible - I just want to finish and get experience of the stages.”