Partnered by Fabian Lurquin in his BRX Prodrive Hunter, Loeb set the third fastest stage time for the third leg running, and climbed two places to second overall on another dramatic day when just 14 seconds separated the top three.

Swede Mattias Ekström in an Audi won the 336km third stage, which started and finished at the bivouac in Zagora, but he did it with only six seconds to spare from the Toyota of Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah, who edged out Loeb by just eight seconds on the day.

At the end of another huge tussle between the world’s elite drivers, Loeb was 6 mins 16 secs away from rally leader Al Attiyah, and within reach of the third outright podium place in the championship.

The pace of the nine-time World Rally Champion in the BRX Prodrive Hunter saw him move ahead of Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, who dropped to third overall, and also climb above Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard’s Audi had mechanical issues.

Orly Terranova and Bernardo Graue were unable to complete yesterday’s stage in their BRX Prodrive Hunter after damaging the suspension in hitting a big rock at speed. But the Argentine duo bounced back from that setback to set the seventh fastest time today.

Loeb had produced a remarkable performance in the Hunter to finish third fastest on the previous leg, despite losing power for a large part of the stage through an exhaust problem.

He will now be aiming to close the gap on Al Attiyah over the two remaining stages, knowing that, with just under 500km of competitive action ahead, the rally is far from over.

Today’s stage was another fast, long and demanding test, with only a handful of dunes to negotiate, but a variety of terrain to cover, including new sections added to the rally route for the first time.