On the final passage across the 15-kilometre and highly varied Tros stage, Rally Poland's final proper gravel route before the concluding Mikolajki super special, the two Citroen C4 WRC drivers running under SupeRally rules set the fastest times.

Sebastien Loeb signed a stage victory for the works Citroen team with a 7:44.4 performance, 1.8sec ahead of Evgeny Novikov, the Citroen Junior Team driver who let him pass ahead in the general standings on the previous stage.

Loeb has every chance of ending eighth on this rally thanks to tactics; the Citroen camp is doing all it can to help him as they keep the WRC championships in mind.

"I would not say (eighth is) a good result," Loeb stated, however adding: "One point is maybe very important at the end of the season."

Petter Solberg brought his team's Citroen Xsara into third place on this run, but he is too far away in the overall rankings to have any chance of overtaking his brother Henning at this point. "It was a very good rally for me but my brother was quicker," recognised the Norwegian.

Rally leader Mikko Hirvonen came in a half-second behind the PSWRT car to set the fourth-fastest time. Speaking of the rally, the Finn remarked: "It was really, really good, but still one (stage) to go."

The Ford driver had no doubts that his title rival Loeb would gain another position in the standings before this stage was completed: "I'm sure Sebastien will get a point – I don't see why not."

Dani Sordo was fifth-fastest aboard his works Citroen while Jari-Matti Latvala came next for the Ford team.

"It was a very hard weekend, sometimes we were going really flat-out," Latvala said, looking over his weekend. "It's been demanding."

The Stobart Ford drivers performed a grouped finish by taking positions seven to nine with Henning Solberg leading Krzysztof Holowczyc and Matthew Wilson. Zbigniew Staniszewski's Mitsubishi Lancer rounded out this run's top ten.

Going into the final run, the leaderboard shows that Mikko Hirvonen's advantage measures 17.8 seconds on Jari-Matti Latvala, 1:10.9 on Dani Sordo. Fourth-placed Henning Solberg has a 20.6-second lead on brother Petter.

Following Citroen orders, Conrad Rautenbach simply stopped his Citroen Junior Team car on this stage and looked at the scenery for 13 minutes and a few seconds; enough time to allow Sebastien Loeb to overtake him in the general standings, therefore granting him eighth position and the precious points that come with it.

Only the very popular Mikolajki super special stage remains to be competed upon before Rally Poland confirms its first WRC victor in 36 years.