Auriol now a match for Makinen

Auriol and Toyota had a great rally, with the Frenchman gaining maximum points, and the team having two drivers on the podium; Carlos Sainz finished third behind Subaru's Richard Burns.

With dangerous conditions pervading throughout the inaugural Chinese event, Auriol had a difficult final day with rain again affecting the course. However, Auriol made his intentions clear from the outset, challenging Burns for top spot.

Auriol said, 'We were in fact probably a bit over-cautious in the first stage, sections of which were very fast and slippery, and lost maybe three or four seconds.

'It is difficult to describe just how slippery it has been on the stages, and in fact stage 20 was probably harder this afternoon even though it was not raining.

'I am obviously delighted with the result; we knew when we came here that it would be rough, important to keep out of trouble and not make any mistakes. We are now equal on points with Tommi and for the three remaining events I think we will be very evenly matched.'

Sainz held a comfortable third position going into today's last leg, and ran without incident until SS20, when he was forced to switch from the electronic gear-shift to the manual transmission system.

He still finished third though, and commented afterwards, 'This morning's stages were still very muddy by the time we were going through them, and in wet conditions it's almost comparable to Great Britain or Portugal,

'We had a problem with the electronic gear-shift system in stage 20 which was obviously a bit worrying, but other than that everything has been fine.

'We knew that unless something happened to Richard [Burns], third position would be where we finished.'