Day 3am: Burns leads fight for second
With event leader Markko Martin able to relax with over a minute's advantage, the focus of the final day of Rally Finland so far has been an intense fight for second between Richard Burns and Petter Solberg. Subaru driver Solberg drew first blood on the opening stage of the day, but Burns subsequently fought back and now leads the Norwegian by 1.8s with three stages to go
Solberg clocked the second fastest time behind Martin on SS18, and in doing so leapfrogged over Burns and Carlos Sainz to move up from second to fourth. Burns immediately responded with the fastest overall time on SS19, although he remained down in third, as Solberg was just 0.3s slower. Sainz dropped off the pace of the pair on the stage, complaining to his team on the radio that he hit something that badly affected his cars handling.
Burns continued his push with another fastest time in SS20, and moved back ahead of Solberg, although his advantage is still under two seconds. With just three stages remaining, the battle for the runner-up spot is likely to go down to the final corner of the final stage.
Upfront, Martin appears to have moderated his pace after his early morning fastest stage time. He clocked the third fastest times on both SS19 and SS20, as he backs off to ensure his Ford Focus WRC03 is able to deliver him to the victory ramp.
Sainz's drop-off in pace leaves him almost half a minute behind the battle for second, although he remains comfortably ahead of his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb. Tommi Makinen is the first of the Finns in sixth, ahead of young countrymen Janne Tuohino and Sebastian Lindholm.
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