Burns wants clean fight for title

Richard Burns said he wanted to go head to head with Marcus Gronholm in a straight fight for this year's World Rally Championship without British rally fans doing anything stupid to try and stop the flying Finn. "I'm not expecting people to try and influence the result," he said. "I won't be happy winning the title if Marcus has problems outside his control. I hope people remember that I've got to go to Finland next year!"

Burns added: "It's been a great fight all year and I want it to be fair all the way to the end." Peugeot competition boss Corrado Provera joked, "Marcus will be going too fast for anyone to throw anything in front of him anyway!"

Co-driver Robert Reid believes that the pressure is off Burns and on Gronholm. "Marcus can only lose the championship but our job is quite simple. The home support is a major boost to us and I've got the best seat in the house!"

Subaru team boss David Lapworth says he believes Subaru has got its recipe right for the event but admits that his biggest fear is not Gronholm. "All the top drivers are a risk to Richard winning the event but you have to look to Colin (McRae) as the biggest."

Gronholm says he's not trying to think about the title and has been so busy testing in the past week that he's been able to avoid the pressure. "I'm quite relaxed and I haven't even decided the tactics for this rally. Tonight I think we need a boat for the superspecial because the recce showed it's quite bad. There will be no big attack - I'll leave that to Richard - but after that we'll see how the event starts."

The Finn admitted that he's glad to have the nine point cushion over Burns. "I'm glad it's not just one point because then it would be very difficult to win because Richard is certainly the fastest driver here."

Co-driver Timo Rautiainen says that tactics will not be anything special on this rally. "If we try to drive for fifth place then we won't succeed. We have to treat this event like all the ones before and be relaxed about it."

Don't forget you can watch the Rally GB battle unfold here on autosport.com, with our live timing starting from SS1, Cardiff 1, at 1858 GMT.

To see the schedule click here.

To see current championship standings click here.