Sebastien Loeb will take a five-second lead over Citroen teammate Mikko Hirvonen into the final day of Rally Finland after maintaining his advantage through Friday afternoon.
Although the margins were narrow, Loeb was quickest on two of the three stages as the Citroens continued to pull clear of the Fords. Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg are just a second apart in third and fourth, but are 20sec off the lead.
Mads Ostberg is now under no pressure in fifth place, with Thierry Neuville having rolled out on SS11 when he missed a pace note.
That moved Ott Tanak up to sixth place, with fellow satellite Ford drivers Jari Ketomaa, Matti Rantanen, Martin Prokop and Ken Block filling the remaining top 10 places.
Leading positions after SS8:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 1h20m30.4s
2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 5.0s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 20.3s
4. Petter Solberg Ford + 21.4s
5. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 47.7s
6. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 1m36.4s
7. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford + 2m28.3s
8. Matti Rantanen M-Sport Ford + 2m47.4s
9. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 3m18.4s
10. Ken Block Monster Ford + 4m47.0s