Gronholm holding comfortable lead

The Peugeot driver moved to the head of the timesheets after SS2 and has gradually drawn further away from the chasing pack as the day progressed.

Thomas Radstrom is still second, losing touch with the leader after briefly visiting a ditch in his privately-entered Toyota Corolla. He is now under pressure from Tommi Makinen, who lost time on SS6 after having to avoid a photographer stood in the road.

Colin McRae and Richard Burns are both still in the top five and challenging the Scandinavians. Only 0.2s currently separates the two British drivers. Burns' only problem today came on SS2, when he hit a post box and did some minor cosmetic damage to his Subaru Impreza.

Toni Gardemeister is again outshining his former World Champion team-mate Didier Auriol. The Finn is ninth despite a power-sapping engine problem.

'This is like driving a Group N car!' he joked. 'There is so little power from the engine, we can go flat-out everywhere...'

The new Hyundai Accent WRCs continue to set an encouraging pace just outside the top ten.

'I'm very happy,' reported Alister McRae. 'We are not very far off the speed of the SEATs. I'm not 100% confident in the car's handling, but I'm here to learn.'

McRae and Eriksson are currently running 15th and 18th respectively.

Overall positions after stage eight:

T Makinen 9m30.0s

C McRae 9m33.5s

T Radstrom 9m35.2s

C Sainz 9m36.6s

R Burns 9m37.9s

J Kankkunen 9m39.4s

F Delecour 9m39.4s

D Auriol 9m41.6s

T Gardemeister 9m42.8s

K Eriksson 9m45.4s

F Loix 9m46.5s

M Martin 9m57.3s

H Rovanpera 9m58.2s