Burns leads into final day

The Englishman was in total control today, but knows that the final day's stages are among the toughest of the event and could still play a major part in the eventual outcome of the rally.

Burns shunned any notion of playing a tactical game tonight and dropping back to run later on the roads tomorrow because the danger of earlier cars dragging rocks into the road is too great. Also, with just 12 seconds covering Burns, Marcus Gronholm and Colin McRae, every second will count.

McRae survived a scare when his Ford damaged several components landing heavily after negotiating a swollen water crossing, but the car was able to be fixed at service. The same could not be said of team-mate Carlos Sainz's car. It retired on the spot just 600 metres from the end of the day's second stage after the Spaniard misjudged a crest and landed on the end of a metal crash barrier.

1 Burns/Reid, Subaru Impreza WRC2000, 2h45m59.1
2 Gronholm/Rautiainen, Peugeot 206WRC, +9.3s
3 McRae/Grist, Ford Racing Focus WRC, +12.0s
4 Kankkunen/Repo, Subaru Impreza WRC2000, +32.0s
5 Makinen/Mannisenmaki, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, +39.2s
6 Loix/Smeets, Mitsubishi Carisma GT, +3m21.5
7 Solberg/Mills, Ford Racing Focus WRC, +6m06.2
8 McRae/Senior, Hyundai Accent WRC, +6m16.9
9 Pozzo/Ortiz, Mitsubishi Lancer E6 (GpN), +11m43.6
10 Trelles/Del Buono, Mitsubishi Lancer E6 (GpN), +11m47.5