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Day 3 am: Solberg keeps advantage

Petter Solberg can proudly say he has kept control of the Tour de Corse throughout an entire morning. Since Solberg bent his car on the pre-event shakedown, the weather and fine driving have helped him work towards what could be a decisive advantage. But he's far from being home and dry yet. Many have faltered in this event already

Today's stages have been run in damp conditions that are ideal for Solberg's Pirelli tyres, but the Norwegian kept the cool that he lost so dramatically in Thursday's shakedown to maintain a 36-second grip on the event with two stages to go. Should those stages be run in the dry, however, Solberg may well be feeling some pressure by the end of the 31km final test.

Whilst only an accident or another weather twist should stop Solberg taking the rally this afternoon, the battle for second is as close as it gets. Francois Duval (Ford) and Carlos Sainz (Citroen) are split by just one tenth of a second after Sainz closed on the Belgian this morning. Sainz's tactics will be interesting, for third place would see him jump into an unexpected one-point championship lead, provided things stay as they are. But the two extra points on offer for passing Duval (who is out of the title hunt) must be tempting to El Matador.

Sebastien Loeb was fastest on both this morning's stages, but both he and Markko Martin are still almost certainly too far back to score points on this rally. Championship leader Richard Burns is down in eighth overall after the runs through Penitercier Coti Chiavari (SS13) and Pont de Calzola (SS14).

There's been a change for fourth place, with Marcus Gronholm closing on Colin McRae on SS13 before catching the Scot on lengthy SS14. But Gronholm's lead is just under three seconds, with almost a minute ahead to Sainz. McRae in turn will need to look out for Gilles Panizzi, just over four seconds behind him.


Petter Solberg (Subaru) 3h44m27.8s
Francois Duval (Ford) +36.5s
Carlos Sainz (Citroen) +36.6s
Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot) +1m31.5s
Colin McRae (Citroen) +1m34.2s
Gilles Panizzi (Peugeot) +1m38.8s
Tommi Makinen (Subaru) +2m25.5s
Richard Burns (Peugeot) +2m40.4s


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