HAMAR, Norway (AFP) -- Finland's Mikko Hirvonen remained on top of the Rally of Norway, the third round of the 2007 world championship, after Saturday's second day which proved disastrous for three-time world champion Sebastien Loeb.

Loeb, who was just two points behind Finland's Marcus Gronholm in the drivers' championship after two rounds, lost about 17 minutes in two special stages.

Hirvonen now leads by 19.3sec from Gronholm and 3min 48.3sec from home hope Petter Solberg of Norway with Loeb 17:54.9 back in 18th place.

Overnight leader Hirvonen won the first special of the day, and though Loeb won the second Hirvonen widened the gap to 19.7sec ahead of Finland's Marcus Gronholm.

However Loeb's joy turned to grief as he lost more than 17min after disasters on the 12th and 13th stages.

The Frenchman lost eight minutes after crashing into a snow wall on stage 12 before losing another nine minutes after making a mistake on the next stage and coming off the road for the first time since the Monte Carlo Rally in 2006.

He had started stage 12 in third position, just 41sec off the pace, but has now dropped acres off the pace.

And Loeb's Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo of Spain also suffered as he came off the road on the ninth stage to fall out of contention for the win.

The 44km ninth special stage, or first of the day, had kept up to its promise of being an extremely tough stretch to cope with according to the drivers.

Sweden's Daniel Carlsson said stage nine was probably the most difficult special of his whole career and Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala claimed it was the toughest of the 2007 championship.