Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala remains the leader of the Rally of Italy but his advantage has been slashed by half a minute to just 9.9s over Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen, after day two on Saturday.

World championship leader Sebastien Loeb lost crucial time with a flat tyre on the penultimate super special and slipped to fourth at 1min 14.8 seconds, leaving the Frenchman's perfect record this season of five wins from five rallies in serious jeopardy.
Hirvonen was the day's big winner in Sardinia as he took two specials and moved within touching distance of Latvala and the Finn is desperate for victory in order to close the gap on Loeb in the championship standings.
"I definitely want a win, not a second place," Hirvonen told the sport's official website. "We have an okay starting position so hopefully we can fight."

Loeb saw all his good work earlier in the day undone with the puncture when it appeared the five-time champion was on the verge of challenging for the lead.
The Citroen driver won three specials on the day but is now resigned to a lower place on the podium after losing touch with the two Ford drivers while Norway's Petter Sorberg in the second Citroen is third at 1min 12.6 seconds. "Now I?ll try to catch third, it's the only thing I can do," said a disappointed Loeb. "This rally has been a difficult one from the start. It hasn?t gone as we wanted it to and we had some bad luck. Our tactics yesterday were good, but with the puncture today (Saturday), this is all we can do."

Latvala hopes his lead will stand up as the race heads into Sunday's final day which features five specials on loose gravel roads but he has the disadvantage of being first on the track. "It won?t be easy tomorrow (Sunday) because I expect Mikko will push and I?ve lost a little bit too much today (Saturday)." said Latvala. "Overall though it?s been a good day. We had a really, really tough battle in SS11 and I made a little mistake when I spun on a junction. But that?s the only mistake I've made."