Gronholm leading Ford one-two

Marcus Gronholm therefore goes into the final day - which contains only three special stages - with a lead of more than two minutes over his Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen.

OMV Peugeot driver Henning Solberg heads the opposition in third, but is nearly three minutes adrift.

After a dry morning, the rain returned with a vengeance for this afternoon's loop of stages. Not only were SS14 and SS15 extremely wet, muddy and slippery, but the former even featured a smattering of hail and snow!

"It's amazing to see white on the ground up there," said Colin McRae at the end of the stage.

"The snow line at the side of the road is incredible. It's a really tricky stage anyway without these conditions."

This weather suited Solberg much better than the earlier dry stages, and he took nine seconds out of Gronholm's lead in Chimera 1.

But his charge was halted four kilometres into Phaselis 2, when the Subaru Impreza struck a rock and slewed into a ditch.

Although Solberg should have the opportunity to rejoin for leg three under SupeRally regulations, he will have received ten minutes in penalties for failing to complete today's last two stages, so will struggle to make it back into the points.

That leaves Gronholm and Ford in the perfect position to erode the absent Sebastien Loeb's points lead, but the Finn is taking nothing for granted given the conditions.

"This is a nightmare this rally," Gronholm said. "It's very difficult to keep the car on the stage, it's incredible.

"But we are here..."

The demise of the younger Solberg sibling moved his elder brother Henning up to third. An intermittently sticking throttle gave him a scare in SS14, but it is the lack of suitable tyres that Solberg fears may cost him a podium in the end.

"If it starts raining like this tomorrow, I have no chance at all," he said.

"It's my fault, I chose these tyres, so I cannot blame anyone."

If Solberg's prediction proves correct, then a whole gaggle of drivers will be lining up to deprive him of third.

Fourth-placed Chris Atkinson will start the leg just 18.4 seconds behind Solberg, after a consistent run through this afternoon's stages.

But he remains under pressure from Kosti Katajamaki. The Stobart Ford driver is arguably the star of the rally, and was second fastest through SS15.

After his series of quick times this morning, Xevi Pons lost ground when intercom problems left him unable to hear his pacenotes in SS14. He dropped behind Atkinson and Katajamaki, but remains the leading Citroen.

His illustrious teammate McRae could hardly have had worse conditions in which to acclimatise to the Kronos Xsara. He will start leg three in seventh place.

"The conditions are really, really treacherous," he said.

"It's so easy to make a mistake and it's not worth taking the chance. We've got to stay on the road and get to the finish."

With Ford potentially in line for a maximum 18-point haul, Kronos need McRae and fellow points-scorer Dani Sordo to salvage as much as possible from this rally.

Sordo was delayed by a puncture in SS14, but rebounded to set the fastest time of all in the following stage. In the process, he closed right in on OMV Peugeot driver Manfred Stohl, who currently holds ninth, behind Francois Duval in the best of the Skodas.

Leading times at end of leg two:

Pos  Driver      Make           Time
 1.  Gronholm    Ford     2h 49:50.4
 2.  Hirvonen    Ford       + 2:05.2
 3.  H Solberg   Peugeot    + 2:45.6
 4.  Atkinson    Subaru     + 3:04.0
 5.  Katajamaki  Ford       + 3:05.7
 6.  Pons        Citroen    + 3:29.5
 7.  McRae       Citroen    + 3:44.2
 8.  Duval       Skoda      + 4:12.2
 9.  Stohl       Peugeot    + 4:21.7
10.  Sordo       Citroen    + 4:28.0