Gronholm a step closer to win

The Ford driver now has more than a minute advantage over Sebastien Loeb, who accepted earlier today that his chances of victory were all but over.

Gronholm's dominance was demonstrated by being an impressive 11.3 seconds quicker than anyone else through the longest stage of the rally - the 40.96 km stage from Moksi to Leustu.

He now has just four stages - 60km - to negotiate tomorrow before he can stand on the top step of the podium for the fourth time this season.

Loeb has a comfortable advantage over third place as he begins to close in on his third successive world championship.

Gronholm's teammate Mikko Hirvonen is in third place, more than half a minute behind Loeb, happy to back his teammate with a strong result for Ford's pursuit of the manufacturers championship.

Infact, all the major positions are, barring disaster, uncontested.

Henning Solberg, Gigi Galli, and Janne Tuohino are all holding advantages for fourth, fifth and sixth places that they should be able to hold onto through the short final leg tomorrow.

Subaru's Chris Atkinson, still limping on in 13th after a troubled day, suffered power steering failure in SS16 and dropped yet more time to the leaders.