Day 2pm: Gronholm rules

The Finn began to experience problems at the start of the afternoon stages where he drove without fourth gear on his 307. Despite the loss of speed, Gronholm managed to make it to the service park still with a 31s lead over Martin where his mechanics fixed his car and the Finn was able to continue.

"Today has not been easy, but I'm delighted to be leading," he said, "We started off with a feeling that was quite alright, but still not completely perfect. Then we had the gearbox problem. That was a real worry, but we actually lost less time than I thought we would. The last stages were fine, but I could not relax for a minute. We have to keep pushing hard until the very end."

Up until that point, Subaru's Petter Solberg was proving that while he may be out of the rally following his retirement on Friday, he was not to be forgotten as he notched up the top times in five of the eight tests today. The Norwegian will not be eligible to score points but returned to the rally after his retirement due to the new SupeRally system.

With just four stages of the rally to go it is unlikely that Martin will be able to catch Gronholm unless the Finn encounters problems on the final day. The double world champion is likely to be taking it relatively easy on Sunday as he gets ever closer to securing his first rally victory of the season. Martin is still trying his heart out though and took the final stage win of the day, the Killeri spectator special, SS18.

"I've driven safely but not flat out," he said, "There is a big gap between Marcus and myself and we'll need outside help if we are to win because there's no way I can catch him unless he hits trouble. I have to ensure I don't make any mistakes now and there is no point in attacking too much tomorrow.



"We need to regain more than 30 seconds and the most we are likely to achieve is a handful. I hope I can keep second at this pace but there are many kilometres remaining. Many drivers have held a top three placing and lost it, so I'll try not to do that."

The Estonian looks a safe bet for second spot, 49s ahead of Carlos Sainz (Citroen), while 32s separates the Spaniard from team-mate Sebastien Loeb. The Frenchman will rue his poor start to the weekend on Friday because with Solberg now out of the picture it is crucial that he scores as many points as he can to further the gap between him and the Norwegian in the championship standings.

Chasing him hard is Janne Tuohino (Ford) who relinquished his place to Loeb earlier in the day. All is not lost for the local Finn though for he is just 7s behind the Frenchman.

Holding on to sixth place overall is the Skoda of Jani Paasonen who has driven a superb weekend so far. His spot is safe too should he not suffer any problems for he is over two minutes ahead of Peugeot privateer Daniel Carlsson in seventh.

Problems for Ford's Francois Duval promoted Skoda's second driver Toni Gardemeister up to the final points position in eighth. The Belgian was given a 50-second penalty for checking late out of the service area on SS16 and then went on to lose 38s on the stage. He is just 5s behind Gardemeister though and will be keen to grab the final point from the Finn tomorrow.