Day 3am: Gronholm in sight

Yesterday's retirement of team-mate and cousin Sebastien Lindholm, who rolled on SS12, left Gronholm well ahead of Ford's Markko Martin. And, through this morning's first two stages, only the showboating Subarus of world champion Petter Solberg and Mikki Hirvonen (who both officially retired on Friday) were quicker than the factory Peugeot driver.

The pace of Gronholm, very much on home ground, has forced Martin to settle for second. "We have to take as many points as we can from this rally," admitted the Estonion, still fragile after his massive shunt in Argentina three weeks ago. "We can fight with Marcus today, but we're never going to close the gap and the risks are higher if we drive much faster.

"But we will still keep the pressure up because, if Marcus has a problem, we need to be there to pick up the pieces."

Argentinian Rally winner Carlos Sainz, for the second event running, has out-paced his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb. The Spanish veteran is a minute behind Gronholm in third but less than 20s behind Martin. Sainz, will likely settle for the botton step of the podium however and has a 27s advantage over Loeb, who has admitted that he is struggling for pace on the ultra-fast Finnish roads.

Janne Tuohino's chase to regain fourth position from Loeb was one of yesterday's main talking points, but the Ford driver has been unable to recapture that form this morning and is now 18s adrift of the second Citroen.

Jani Paasonen's fabulous performance in the factory Skoda Fabia continues in sixth, ahead of team-mate Toni Gardemeister, while Ford's Francois Duval has moved into the points in eighth after recovering from yesterday's 50s penalty.