Rallying-Loeb heading for fourth Argentine win in a row

BUENOS AIRES, March 29 (Reuters) - Citroen's Sebastien Loeb was poised to take the championship lead and celebrate a fourth Rally Argentina win in a row after an untroubled second leg on Saturday.

The four times world champion ended the day's 17th stage in Cordoba province's Calamuchita valley with a comfortable advantage of one minute 20.1 seconds over Subaru's Norwegian Petter Solberg.

Australian Chris Atkinson, also driving a Subaru, was in third place and a further 46.9 seconds back with only Saturday's 1.78-km super-special in Cordoba soccer stadium and three stages on Sunday remaining.

Spain's Dani Sordo was fourth for Citroen with Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach fifth in a privately-entered Citroen.

Despite his commanding lead, Loeb said the conditions still made progress difficult.

"There's so much mud on the stages," he told the official wrc.com Web site. "It's a bit worse than yesterday even because the stages are faster so when you lose grip you really notice it."

CRASHED OUT

Loeb's path was cleared on Friday when Ford's championship leader Mikko Hirvonen hit a rock and crashed out while leading.