Day 3 am: Martin in the clear
With just three stages of the Acropolis Rally remaining, only a disaster can stop Markko Martin claiming his first-ever WRC win. But a titanic struggle looks to be in store for second place, with Carlos Sainz and Petter Solberg split by just 0.9s
After this morning's three stages, the Estonian holds a 57.4s lead over Sainz. But despite Martin's dominance at the top of the leaderboard, there are several close battles throughout the field, but none tighter than the battle for second between Sainz and the charging Solberg.
The Subaru star set the fastest time on SS17 and SS18 to close within 0.4s of Sainz, who could only manage the seventh and fourth fastest times on the stages. The Spaniard battled back in SS19, setting the fastest time, but was only 0.5s quicker than Solberg.
Fourth place Colin McRae looks likely to be in for a quiet afternoon. He sits nearly 30s behind Solberg, but has an advantage of over 40s to Tommi Makinen in fifth.
The Finn is likely to have a much busier afternoon, as his advantage over Richard Burns is just 2.4s. Despite continuing gearbox problems, the Englishman took time out of Makinen on both SS17 and SS18, although the Subaru driver responded in fine style by winning SS19.
Harri Rovanpera sits a lonely seventh after his problems yesterday, whilst Gilles Panizzi is in the final points paying position in his privateer Peugeot.
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