Sebastien Loeb re-took the lead on the Rallye Deutschland on the very first test this morning, moving back in front of Francois Duval, who stole the lead in the final test on Friday.
Seb began the second leg 1.3 seconds behind his former team-mate - however, he soon reversed that in SS7, the 16.37 kilometre-run through St Wendeler Land and with Duval only ninth fastest, the Frenchman immediately pulled out a 15.2 second advantage.
The triple world champion then increased his margin further in SS8 to go into the remote service zone at Konken with a 24.9 second cushion.
Following that the drivers' tackled two more stages before returning to Trier for the mid-day halt and another stage win helped Seb further increase his lead and following SS10, he concluded the morning 26.7 second up on his nearest challenger.
"I had a great start this morning - SS7 is a really good test," said Loeb. "The next one is fast and narrow but we didn't have any problems. It was slippery in SS9. All in all though I am trying not to push too hard, but it is a hard fight with Marcus."
Marcus Gronholm meanwhile has now moved up from third overnight to second. Although the Finn dropped behind his team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen in SS7, after only setting the fifth quickest time, both managed to get the jump on Duval in SS8.
Marcus then went up to P2 in SS9, taking his first stage win of the event and with second in SS10, moved away from the battle for third.
"I must have got out of bed on the wrong side because the first stage was terrible," said Gronholm. "The car and tyres felt soft and it was moving around a lot. I had no confidence and couldn't find any rhythm.
"But we fought back and hopefully it will stay dry so I can keep pushing. The gap is 26sec to Loeb and it will be hard to eat into that and make a difference but I will continue trying."
Mikko for his part was fastest on the opening stage but couldn't hold off Gronholm in Erzweiler. He also slipped behind Duval in Panzerplatte, the final test this morning, after hitting a straw bale and returned to Trier fourth, just 0.5sec behind the Belgian.
Both Duval and Mikko though are now 15 seconds or so off Marcus.
"Halfway through SS10 I went wide on a fast right corner that was covered in gravel and hit a big bale with the rear. It caused a lot of panel damage and I was lucky it wasn't a hinkelstein. I normally like Baumholder more than the country roads but I didn't have a good feeling," said Mikko.
"There was more gravel than we thought from the recce and maybe I should have taken it a little easier because I started to lose grip towards the end of Panzerplatte," he added.
Duval, who led overnight, had a poor start in his Kronos-run Citroen Xsara WRC and he went off the road twice in SS7 as his tyres were too cold - that error dropped him into the clutches of the 'works' Ford drivers'. Although he was back on the pace again in SS8, SS9 and SS10, the damage had been done.
Further down the order, Jan Kopecky is on course for fifth in his privately entered Skoda Fabia WRC - albeit more than 1.5 minutes off the battle for third. Jan reported a few engine problems this morning but still set some good times, including a fourth best effort in SS7.
Toni Gardemeister is next up in sixth, having slipped behind Kopecky in the final test due to hydraulic problems. The Finn lost more than 20-30 seconds as a result, but with the gap to Jan less than 4 seconds, providing the problem can be fixed, he should be able to come back at the Czech driver this afternoon.
Subaru duo, Petter Solberg and Xavier Pons round out the provisional points' scorers in seventh and eighth respectively, and despite steering problems, 'Hollywood' was reasonably optimistic.
Indeed he has set his sights on hauling in Gardemeister and Kopecky, who are less than 30 seconds in front: "We are heading for fifth place overall today which I am fighting hard for. We have climbed two places from ninth this morning after losing time yesterday and I hope we can continue this," stated Petter.
"I haven't been completely comfortable with the feel of the steering this morning, but for sure I will keep pushing and think that we can keep climbing up the overall standings."
Stobart Ford duo Jari-Matti Latvala and Matthew Wilson round out the top ten, the former having losing two places in the final stage after picking up two punctures.
Of the rest, Chris Atkinson is eleventh and no doubt cursing his error on day 1 in SS2, when he beached his Impreza WRC and lost over 7 minutes. The Aussie has continued to set some very competitive times, including two third fastest efforts, but still he is nearly two minutes off Wilson.
Henning Solberg re-started this morning under the SupeRally and is now just outside the top 15, two places behind Martin Prokop, who is continuing to dominate the FIA Junior Rally Championship category.
Prokop won two of this morning's four tests, while Urmo Aava, his nearest JRC rival was fastest in the other two. The gap though between them remains more than a minute.
In terms of retirees, Manfred Stohl was the big casualty this morning and he was forced to retire his OMV Kronos-run Xsara in SS10.
The action now continues at 14.45 hours local time, when all four of this morning's tests will be repeated to conclude the second leg. Like this morning there is a remote service zone prior to the run through Erzweiler, SS13.
