Rally Argentina 2013: Sebastien Loeb extends lead

Sebastien Loeb has extended his Rally Argentina lead to 39.8 seconds over Sebastien Ogier.

Ogier was running in first position until a driving error on SS7 pushed him back to third; the Frenchman later picked up a puncture at the end of SS8 which left him almost a minute behind the lead.

Mikko Hirvonen‘s hopes of a podium finish soon evaporated as he also punctured his tyre on SS8; he dropped back to sixth place, and is now more than 3 minutes behind fifth-placed Thierry Neuville.

Evgeny Novikov‘s composed pace helped him move up to third, but he’s currently having to deal with pressure from Jari-Matti Latvala who’s just 8 seconds behind in fourth place.

Volkswagen’s third driver Andreas Mikkelsen fell back from sixth to ninth after sustaining suspension damage following an impact with a bridge.

Leading positions after SS10:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen       3h32m15.9s
 2.  Sebastien Ogier     VW               + 39.8s
 3.  Evgeny Novikov      M-Sport Ford   + 2m43.3s
 4.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW             + 2m51.5s
 5.  Thierry Neuville    M-Sport Ford   + 3m32.5s
 6.  Mikko Hirvonen      Citroen        + 6m43.3s
 7.  Mads Ostberg        M-Sport Ford  + 10m40.6s
 8.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford    + 12m13.9s
 9.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW            + 12m45.6s
10.  Dani Sordo          Citroen       + 13m04.1s