Multi loop & two column display

I’m very new to WordPress and thus far it’s been a steep learning curve, especially being as coding is not my forte.

Through my inexperience I initially designed a page that features a partial two column layout, that is to say the index page features a prominent (featured) post that spans the length of a div container, while beneath it two more posts would be displayed that occupy the same space horizontally as the featured post.

The featured post is displayed by way of a custom query,but I’d hoped to display the other two posts using the default loop.

So when I got to dealing with ‘The Loop’ I quickly realised that the standard WordPress loop will execute and output the same code, for the number of posts specified through the dashboard.

My problem is that the two horizontal containers are floated left and right and therefore do not share identical styling r.e.positioning. I’ve looked at my html and can’t see an easy way to address this so as to have identical mark-up and achieve the same horizontal layout.

So my enquire, before I start to re-design the page, was to see if there is a way of using multiple loops to display the 2nd and 3rd most recent posts?

Thanks for any help you are able to offer.

JD