Burns philosophical over Acropolis

Richard Burns has yet to win an event for Peugeot in 2003 and will be hammer and tongs to make it right this weekend. The Englishman goes into the event with a two-point lead over team-mate Marcus Gronholm who has won three rallies this year but, on 32 points, Burns believes in the benefits of consistency.

"I'll be the first to accept that Marcus is on a big roll at the moment," says Burns. "But he still has to take big risks to achieve his success - the damage to the rear-suspension on his 206 at the end of Rally Argentina is testament to this!

"All that is great, if the mood takes you. My focus, however, is more concentrated on consistency and the lead of the championship. The question here is, is it more annoying for me not to have won a rally in the 206 or is it more annoying for Marcus to have won three times this season and still not top the WRC Driver Standings?"

Fourth placed man Colin McRae believes that he has a good chance of scoring his first win for Citroen in Greece, but the Scot will face strong challenges from team-mates Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb. Sainz is currently third overall, on 24 points, while Loeb is tied with McRae on 13.

Looking to break up the fractious Citroen brotherhood is Ford's Markko Martin, who is equal sixth with Subaru's Petter Solberg. The Ford team believes it has overcome the reliability problems that have so dogged Martin's progress over the last two rounds of the championship, at a recent test in Greece.

"I am pretty confident because we have had no issues with the reliability of the car on rough roads like there are in Greece," said the Estonian driver. "The only things we have had to deal with are small technical problems that aren't related to the road surface. But there are no weaknesses with the car that worry me at the moment."

The first stage of the event begins on Friday morning at 05:18 GMT (06:18 BST or 08:18 local time).