After seeing team-mate Sebastien Loeb crash out on day one and the Fords of Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg hit trouble in thick fog on Friday, the victory is very much Hirvonen's to lose.

The Finn looked in control on Saturday, however, doing what was required without drama to increase his advantage to 72 seconds over second-placed Mads Ostberg.

Ostberg (Adapta Ford) slowed a little on the day's final stage with a minor issue but his gap to the third-placed Evgeny Novikov (M-Sport Ford) remains around 30 seconds.

"I felt like the whole car was falling apart and then after the water splash, there was a lot of noise," said Ostberg, who had damaged a protective shield under his car.

"It felt like a rock concert in the car! I tried to push but I didn't want to destroy the car."

Solberg charge

The recovering Solberg was the day's stand-out performer, charging from ninth place to fourth after his problems on Friday.

However, his day was soured on the final stage, the 22.57-kilometre Loule test, when he lost over a minute with a steering problem.

"I've got no power steering," Solberg explained. "It happened just before the stage. I've lost my fourth place but it's another day tomorrow."

Solberg's problems saw him drop a place to fifth behind Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar Citroen) in the overall classification.

Solberg's problems were nothing compared to those of team-mate Latvala, who is also back in the race after yesterday's crash but fell even further down the order when he lost 12 minutes with a fuel pressure problem.

Martin Prokop (Czech Ford) heads into the final day in sixth place, ahead of Dennis Kuipers (M-Sport Ford). Sebastien Ogier is eighth for VW Skoda, with Peter van Merksteijn Jnr and Jari Ketomaa rounding out the top 10.

Mini's Dani Sordo picked up a stage win today but remains down in 12th after the electrical problems that struck his car on Thursday night.