Petter Solberg lost the third position as he crashes out in the first stage for day 3.He went off the road on a fast left-hander, dropped down into a small ditch and ploughed into vines. After that he shot back across the road, into vines again before striking and felling a telegraph pole, which inflicted damage to his car.
Petter says: “All the driving before was absolutely perfect. I knew the road was going up on the right again but there were leaves on the windscreen and I couldn’t see. From the outside it looks like ‘why don’t I brake’ but I knew the approximate distance and I was waiting for an open area. I went more on the throttle to get back up to the road again so I don’t get stuck but that’s obviously the decision you take in a split second. I didn’t know it was an electric pole I hit, I thought it was a normal pole. It was a big hit and we broke a steering arm and a TCA. Obviously when you look at the pictures it’s unbelievable. For sure something happened and obviously I have to look with Chris what happened because we are a team but nothing broke on the car.”
The rally leader Sebastien Loeb extends his lead to his major rival Jari-Matti Latvala to almost half a minute.

Results after SS 16 end of day 3:
1. S. Loeb 2:54:33.4
2. J. Latvala +29.7
3. M. Hirvonen +54.0
4. M. Ostberg +1:46.4
5. D. Sordo +1:50.5
6. T. Neuville +1:54.4

There are 6 stages to the end of the rally.