End of leg two: Makinen leads

With all three Peugeots plus the Subaru of second-placed Richard Burns failing to restart this morning when their engines refused to fire up in parc ferme, Makinen's 12-second lead became one of almost two minutes over Ford's Carlos Sainz at a stroke.

Sainz, on his first drive since returning to Ford for 2000, has been playing himself in gently and learning his new car but has remained in touch with Makinen throughout.

It seems, however, that only a cruel twist of fate could let the Spaniard catch and pass the Finn.

Third place overnight is held by the SEAT of Toni Gardemeister, close enough to Sainz to keep the Ford driver on his toes but also under pressure from Colin McRae who finally banged in a decent stage time at the end of Friday's leg.

He overtake Subaru's Juha Kankkunen in the leader board to claim fourth place and set up what could be a nail-biting finale over Saturday's final five stages, including the famous Col du Turini.

Overall positions:

1 T Makinen - Mitsubishi - 2.45.24.0

2 C Sainz - Ford - 2.47.14.5

3 T Gardemeister - SEAT - 2.47.39.8

4 C McRae - Ford - 2.47.56.7

5 J Kankkunen - Subaru - 2.48.27.2

6 B Thiry - Toyota - 2.49.35.3

7 F Loix - Mitsubishi - 2.50.35.6

8 D Auriol - SEAT - 2.51.59.2

9 O Burri - Toyota - 2.52.19.2

10 H Lundgaard - Toyota - 2.53.29.7

Results from stage 10:

1 T Makinen - Mitsubishi - 13.44.1

2 C McRae - Ford - 13.46.1

3 T Gardemeister - SEAT - 13.54.3

4 B Thiry - Toyota - 13.56.6

5 J Kankkunen - Subaru - 14.04.9

6 C Sainz - Ford - 14.05.3

7 A Schwarz - Skoda - 14.13.3

8 F Loix - Mitsubishi - 14.16.0

9 H Lundgaard - Toyota - 14.23.7

10 D Auriol - SEAT - 14.35.0