The World champion finished the second leg of the three-day event with a 41 second lead over British champion Mark Higgins ? and this after starting the day 37 seconds in arrears.

But a stunning display in the rain saw the 33-year-old Frenchman, in his Citroen C4, set fastest times on all 10 stages to wipe out the deficit and turn it into a winning lead.

He keeps saying "winning this rally isn't important", emphasising the purpose of the Citroen team's visit is to learn about Irish rallying ahead of Rally Ireland, the penultimate round of the World championship in November.

But having taken the first leg on Friday to acclimatise himself to the alien Irish conditions, and to begin honing the C4 to the slippery tarmac, he took off yesterday and demonstrated just why he is known as 'The Boss'.

Loeb totally bossed the stages, leaving the field wallowing in his wake.

True, he was helped enormously when overnight leader Higgins overshot a junction on the first stage of the day, his Subaru aqua-planing down an escape road, and then smashing a front wheel when he landed heavily off a huge jump on the next stage.

The two incidents all but wiped out his advantage and left the Manxman in an even fight on day two.

But he simply couldn't hold the World champion who fired in a relentless stream of fastest times as he grew more and more confident in the set-up of his Citroen.

"It is much better than the first day," said Loeb. "The engineers have worked hard to make it better and these stages also suit us better. They are wider and faster."

He was happy about most things as he returned to Letterkenny last night - except the weather. "Is this summer?" he asked with a shiver.

The rest were shivering in awe at his ability to come to a foreign environment and adapt not just himself but the car in such a short space of time.

"He's a fantastic driver," said Higgins. "The conditions, especially in the early part of the day, were really treacherous. But I don't think he's put a wheel out of place all day.

"I got off on the wrong foot with the overshoot on the first stage and then the broken wheel on the second and it has been struggle ever since."

But if Higgins was struggling, the rest were in a different rally.

The best of the Irish contenders was Kevin Lynch but the Northern Ireland champion in his Ford Focus was almost four minutes behind Loeb and reigning Tarmac champion Eugene Donnelly was exactly that ? four minutes adrift.

The two-time Donegal winner has had a nightmare rally, hit by punctures and a malfunctioning gearbox in his Subaru. His target for the final leg was simply to catch Lynch and at least share the podium with his hero Loeb.

Local man Paul Harris was in fifth place in his Toyota with Patrick Elliott rounding out the top six in his Subaru ahead of the production category leader Seamus Leonard in seventh in his Mitsubishi. Garry Jennings, more than a minute further back in ninth overall, held second place.