Ford's Mikko Hirvonen kept the lead at home event and is on course to a top podium finish tomorrow.
The Finn driver held a 3.3-second lead overnight and increased his advantage over Frenchman Loeb on all four morning stages.
Mikko's ensuing win on the repeated Himos stage then proved crucial as the 29-year-old pulled 13.5 seconds further ahead after Loeb damaged a tyre by hitting a pot hole.
He was then too fast for Loeb on a further three stages before the Frenchman pulled some time back on the final stage of the day.
"It's been really good, everything has gone as planned," said Hirvonen, who leads the overall World Championship standings by just a point ahead of Citroen driver Loeb. "It's a shame that Seb had a problem, otherwise we could have had a big fight all the way through. The plan for tomorrow is to continue like I am now."
Only four stages comprising 47.44 competitive kilometres remain on Sunday.
"With this lead I don't need to take quite so many risks as I have been," the Finn said.

On the day's final stage, the Vaarinmaja course, former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen had to retire as he rolled his Abarth Grande Punto S2000 off the road. The F 1 driver, making his WRC debut, was uninjured as was his co-driver Kaj Lindstrom.
Raikkonen had been steadily improving since Thursday's opening night race, having climbed from 20th to 15th overall before the accident.

Meanwhile, Sèbastien Loeb saw his chances of a victory vanished when he suffered a major setback when his car suffered a damaged wheel when it hit a pothole.
Loeb admitted his accident had ruined his chances of victory. "There's nothing else to do but try to finish now," he said. "I took a lot of risks, but Mikko was always in front. I was a bit unlucky to have a puncture; I was just in a rut in the middle of the road. After that it was too difficult to try and catch him. Now the game is over."