Day 2: Solberg holds lead

Solberg paced himself throughout the day and was rarely faster than his nearest pursuers Gronholm and Ford's Markko Martin. But on that day's final stage, SS17, he set a time 4.4s quicker than Gronholm and extended his overall lead to 19.5s.

Gronholm began the day with the bit between his teeth. Keen to make up time quickly, he rocketed through the first two stages Parahi and Batley, cutting the Subaru driver's overnight half-a-minute advantage to just 21.2s. He then lost time through SS12 and SS13 and at the lunchtime service Peugeot decided to change the hydraulics on Gronholm's 307.

"The handling of the car has been quite difficult," said Gronholm. "The day started off well though and I feel confident for the rest of the day."

As well he should. Gronholm topped stages SS14 and SS15 to cut another 13.5s out of Solberg's lead. By the time they began the final stage there was less than 15s separating the two. Then Solberg struck back.

Martin ended the day third overall. The Estonian was never far from the pace, and when Gronholm's Peugeot went temporarily off-song, Martin was setting it. Solberg is now 24.2s ahead of Martin and may be out of reach, but Gronholm is certainly within striking distance.

Harri Rovanpera was second overnight, but a lacklustre second day saw him drop to fourth. He may have slowed to allow team-leader Gronholm back past, but allowing Martin through to third was unlikely to have been part of the plan. He'll now have to watch his back as Sebastien Loeb begins to pick the pace with the new Citroen Xsara WRC 04.

The joint championship leader even won a stage with the French car today as he closed to 16.2s behind the second Peugeot driver.

Carlos Sainz was sixth in the second Citroen having spent the day embroiled in a battle with young guns Francois Duval and Mikko Hirvonen.