Burns pulling away from challengers

The Subaru driver is leading the two-car battle involving Toyota' s Carlos Sainz.

Burns briefly lost his overall lead after stage 11, when he was overtaken by Mitsubishi driver Tommi Makinen, but fought back on the gruelling Pavliani and Marlboro Gravia sections to move back to the top of the leaderboard.

The Briton has performed well after earning a 30-second penalty yesterday for turning up late to a service area.

It was a tactical move to rensure he did not run first in Stage Nine today when the course would be at its roughest.

Ford Focus driver Colin McRae is lying in fourth place, some two seconds behind Makinen.

Leading positions after