AUCKLAND: Eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb survived a day-long battle against charging Citroen teammate Mikko Hirvonen to retain the lead by 6.4 seconds on the second day of Rally New Zealand yesterday.

Petter Solberg enjoyed a trouble-free day to overtake fellow Ford driver Evgeny Novikov and move into third place 1 min 33.3 sec behind Loeb.

Loeb extended his slender lead over Hirvonen by two seconds on the day and admitted to trouble with the arduous 11th stage.

“It’s been difficult this afternoon, very slippery and I really don’t like that Girls High School stage. It’s very technical and I lost about eight seconds there this morning,” he said.

M-Sport Ford driver Ott Tanak is fifth ahead of Citroen Junior driver Thierry Neuville with Spain’s Mini driver Dani Sordo seventh.

Factory Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who lost ground with an off-road diversion on the first day, won two stages on Saturday to lie in eighth place.

“The last two stages have been a lot better for me. Unfortunately my situation is not so great at the moment, but that’s rallying sometimes and I now need to get things together and continue with a positive outlook.”

The final day of the rally on Sunday contains seven special stages covering 61.33 kilometers.