Can Kankkunen reclaim his crown?

If Sainz had not received a jump-start penalty at the end of leg one, they would be exactly equal. Can the home hero hold off the charging Spaniard tomorrow and reclaim the honour of being the most successful WRC driver ever?

Kankkunen took control early in the day, easily overhauling overnight leader Marcus Gronholm. Initially, Richard Burns looked like he might make it an all-Subaru battle, but he slipped back slightly after clipping a rock and causing a puncture. He ended up 3rd.

Sainz began the day 8th thanks to handling problems and the penalty, but he set some incredible fastest stage times and moved up to a close 2nd within three stages.

For a while it seemed Kankkunen would be unable to resist his fellow veteran, but the Spaniard had a brief spin on the longest stage of the rally and never quite recovered.

Gronholm had stayed in the thick of the lead battle until incurring a 50s penalty for being late leaving service. The Peugeot crew had taken too long to fix a hydraulic leak, and it will now take a minor miracle for them to claim their first WRC win with the 206 in Finland.

According to the script, Tommi Makinen should have dominated this event. The Finn has won his home event every year since 1994, and a repeat performance this year would have virtually guaranteed his fourth world title in succession.

But Makinen never really featured this year, running on the fringes of the lead battle in 4th or 5th place, and occasionally setting a fastest stage time, but retiring with transmission failure on SS14 before he could make an impact.

Colin McRae ended the day 4th. He has rarely lasted this long on the Rally Finland and admitted his poor past record on this event was affecting his driving. He closed a little on the leaders towards the end of the day but is not really in contention this time. A battery problem, fixed by Nicky Grist on a road section, hardly helped.

The SEATs have put in some encouraging stage times without making any real impression. Harri Rovanpera lost a lot of time with a puncture and ended up 6th, with his young team-mate Toni Gardemeister having a mixed day of sensational stage times interspersed with silly spins. He still found the time to climb from 14th to 8th.

The Spanish cars are sandwiching top privateer Sebastian Lindholm in his Ford Escort, but it is only a matter of time before he is passed by the flying Gardemeister. Lindholm has driven a strong rally nevertheless, and it's good to see an Escort running competitively on a WRC round again.

Didier Auriol has had an awful day, free-falling down the order in a car crippled by handling problems. Lacking confidence, he said at one stage that his Corolla 'won't even go straight on the straights.'

Janne Tuohine is 10th, despite some difficulties with overheating, ahead of Group N leader Juoko Puhakka.

Tapio Laukkanen is dominating Formula 2 despite some tough opposition. His times are embarrassing some of the four-wheel drive stars, and the newly-crowned British champion is certainly staking his claim for a proper WRC drive in 2000.

Francois Delecour lost time with differential problems, while the third Peugeot of Gilles Panizzi had to stop on SS15 while the Frenchman fixed an electrical problem. He is now half an hour behind the leaders.

Skoda are having a rally to forget. After Armin Schwarz crashed on leg one, their hopes rested on the shoulders of Emil Triner, who ended the day a predictable 17th.

Freddy Loix is another man who must be wishing he could just give up and go home. Off the pace all weekend, he lost even more time with a roll on SS15, then angered Puhakka by delaying the Finn as he dragged his battered car slowly out of the stage.

Thomas Radstrom ran with team-mate McRae for much of this morning, but crashed heavily and is only just in the top twenty.

With another six stages to go tomorrow, it looks like Kankkunen and Sainz will fight this out until the bitter end. The two men are tied on 22 wins apiece, so whoever wins in Finland will retake the title of Most Successful Driver in WRC History. Unless Burns can produce a truly stunning upset and win the rally of course... Just 6s behind Sainz, this is only his second visit to the Rally Finland, an event some say takes years to master, and a rally on which his British rival McRae has always struggled.

Kankkunen must start leg three as favourite, but with Makinen out, Sainz could gain a lot of ground in the championship, and Burns has a chance to pull off one of the greatest upsets in rally history. At one stage today the top five were covered by just 0.8s, expect leg three to be even better.

Overall positions at the end of leg two: