Day 2: Sainz moves up as Martin leads

Even so it's going to be tough tomorrow. The schedule contains new stages and stages that haven't been used for a while. Then there's also Tarzan, as epic as Homer (not Simpson), and twice as tricky.

Colin McRae lies fourth overall at the end of day two, well in touch with the now well running and third placed Petter Solberg. McRae, though, has been steadily losing ground to the Subaru man over the closing stages today.

"Tomorrow will be another tough and long day," he said. "We will see... It's almost inevitable that new incidents will occur. Let's hope they don't happen to us."

Richard Burns needs to finish as well, with as many points as possible. He's homing in on Tommi Makinen, but Burns also has the disadvantage of running with some very second-hand transmission parts. Peugeot has exhausted all the spare gearboxes it is allowed under FIA regulations, which means that Burns and Robert Reid will start tomorrow minus second gear as well!

This will be good news for Tommi Makinen who is running in fourth, just 5.7s ahead of Burns. The Finn has put in a consistent performance today but seemed unhappy with his inability to lose Burns and close down McRae.

Harri Rovanpera has had an eventful rally. Transmission problems baulked his progress, after starting out in second place, but the Finn managed to stay ahead of Gilles Panizzi and Didier Auriol. Panizzi is a mere 2.0s off Rovanpera's seventh place time - definitely a battle to watch tomorrow.