The second day of action at Rally Poland concluded with a repeat passage upon the 30 kilometres of the Wydminy stage, a fast-paced itinerary moving in and out of the woodlands of the Mazurian Lake region.

It was a day of determined flat-out racing for the event's top three drivers: with Dani Sordo pushing very hard to catch up to Jari-Matti Latvala, the latter had no choice but to speed up the pace as well, and that forced rally leader Mikko Hirvonen to drive as fast as possible in order to retain his place at the top of the standings.

At the end of the day all three remained in the same overall positions, but to do so they spent enormous amounts of effort. All were more than satisfied with their respective performances – and with good reason.

On the attack this morning, Dani Sordo halved the gap between himself and Latvala by midday, also diminishing the distance to Hirvonen. After the service break, by then quite aware of the danger represented by Sordo, the Ford drivers decided to seriously push their limits.

The tactic worked: both succeeded in bringing the gaps between themselves and Sordo back to what they were in the morning, and Hirvonen even added a few extra seconds to his lead. The battle is not over however as five tests remain tomorrow.

On today's final run, Sebastien Loeb took the stage victory with a running time of 15:26.9. Racing today under Super Rally rules following his accident yesterday, the Citroen team driver signed a top two result on every stage today, including four wins.

After puncturing in Sardinia, crashing in Greece and again in Poland, five-time champion Loeb admitted that he needed to do well here performance-wise if only to keep his confidence high: "I try to finish this rally and have a new start in Finland."

Second-quickest on this stage, Ford's Mikko Hirvonen was just as amazed as satisfied regarding his performance today: "This afternoon was absolutely insane."

"It's been a long time since we were this flat-out. It's been a good day, even though I didn't expect this level of battle. I thought it could be a bit easier, but since the second stage today we've been absolutely flat-out," he said. "It's been fantastic. Absolutely fantastic!"

Hirvonen's approach today was straightforward: "You just go flat-out no matter what's coming!"

Third-best on this stage, teammate Jari-Matti Latvala explained his logical conclusion regarding Sordo's constant pressure: "We have no choice but to go flat-out."

After losing time earlier this afternoon by stalling twice, the Citroen Junior Team's Sebastien Ogier had promised to do better on the day's concluding stage. His fourth-fastest time allowed him to add a few needed seconds to his battle against the Solberg brothers in the general standings.

Dani Sordo came next in the sixth spot on this stage, relinquishing a few seconds to the determined Ford teammates. The Citroen driver is however comfortably set on the third step of the provisional podium, so tomorrow the team will decide if he continues to apply pressure to the Ford duo ahead in an attempt to gain extra points, or rather safekeep what has been almost secured.

Petter Solberg tried all day to regain his position in the overall top five, and he accomplished that goal on today's final stage when he set the sixth-best result ahead of CJT driver Evgeny Novikov and – more importantly – ahead of his battling sibling, Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg.

However, Petter Solberg pushed himself and his privateer Citroen Xsara very hard over the course of the day: "Too much on the limit to keep dong that all the time!"

He will surely have to continue doing so however, as brother Henning intends to regain his lost position in the standings. When told the gap to his brother was 1.3 seconds, he quickly quipped: "It's not much!"

It was a formation finish for the Stobart Ford outfit as Henning Solberg was followed by teammates Krzysztof Holowczyc and Matthew Wilson, who rounded out the top ten on this stage.

In the general rankings at the end of Day Two, Mikko Hirvonen holds a 12-second lead on teammate Jari-Matti Latvala while third-placed Dani Sordo has been pushed back 26.5 seconds away from the closest Ford driver.

Over a minute further down the line in fourth overall, Sebastien Ogier has increased the gap to the pursuing Petter Solberg to 7.4 seconds. Having lost his former top five position, Henning Solberg remains close by and ready to recuperate it tomorrow.

Day Three at Rally Poland offers two loops featuring a pair of gravel stages each, followed by a closing super special stage. The action resumes tomorrow morning at 07:51 local time.