Gronholm further extends lead

The Finn went back to service with a lead of more than a minute over Petter Solberg, after the Subaru driver had an off at the start of the day.

Solberg had vowed to attack after he finished Friday on a high note, but a wrong tyre choice cost him any real chance of battling Gronholm for the lead.

"I tried to give it a big attack to Marcus and I had so much understeer I went off," said Solberg. "I'm still trying the best I can, but he has to make a mistake if I am to have a chance."

Gronholm said that he hasn't had any problems yet, and that he just needs to keep his concentration to control the rally from the front.

Manfred Stohl moved ahead of Solberg after the Norwegian's off in the morning, but the Peugeot driver wasn't worried when he moved back down to third place after SS9.

"It's not a problem, we are taking it easy," said Stohl. "There is a long way to go, so we won't take many risks."

Jari Matti Latvala held onto fourth place, although he wasn't entirely comfortable with the conditions, and Xevi Pons has closed to within six seconds of the Ford driver with some impressive stage times.

Chris Atkinson is nearly a minute back in sixth place, but he was caught by Francois Duval over the course of the morning.

Both moved ahead of Dani Sordo, who was suffering with a gearbox problem which was costing him time on the faster sections.

British Rally Champion Mark Higgins dropped out of contention for points with problems in the final stage of this morning's loop, which dropped him down to 13th place.

Pos Driver     Make          Time
 1. Gronholm   Ford     1h43:52.4
 2. Solberg    Subaru    + 1:02.4
 3. Stohl      Peugeot   + 1:06.2
 4. Latvala    Ford      + 2:15.0
 5. Pons       Citroen   + 2:20.1
 6. Atkinson   Subaru    + 3:15.0
 7. Duval      Skoda     + 3:17.9
 8. Sordo      Citroen   + 4:04.0
 9. Rovanpera  Skoda     + 4:37.8
10. Kopecky    Skoda     + 5:22.7