Gronholm with safe lead in Finland

The Finnish pair dominated the afternoon's stages to stretch further away from Sebastien Loeb, and Gronholm is set to secure a seventh WRC victory in Finland on Sunday.

Hirvonen has been close to his teammate throughout the event, but the gap between the pair has gradually extended, and they are separated by 20 seconds with just three stages to run.

"I can't pull out much, because Mikko is driving very well," said Gronholm. "But it's all ok."

Hirvonen was still delighted with his performance so far, even if he has dropped back from the leader.

"I'm really really satisfied," he said. "Marcus has been faster most of the time, but the gaps have not been very big.

"But we are running out of time, there are not enough stages left. The gap to Sebastien is quite big now, but anything can happen so we need to stay focused."

Loeb is now one minute adrift of Gronholm, and he has admitted that Citroen will use the final day of the rally for testing purposes.

"When I go through the stages I think that it is impossible to go faster, but the Fords show that it is possible," said a dejected Loeb.

Chris Atkinson remains in a very lonely fourth place, while several drivers behind him have been moved up the order due to the retirements of Petter Solberg and Dani Sordo.

Subaru decided to withdraw Solberg's car as they were unable to work out why he was finding it so difficult to drive, while mechanical woes brought Sordo's day to an end.

Henning Solberg is now in fifth place, and the Norwegian was delighted with his position.

"I said before the rally that I wanted to make the top five, so now I just want to hold my position," he said.

Xevi Pons is a long way adrift of Solberg in sixth place, but the Spaniard could come under pressure from the Mitsubishi of Urmo Aava on the final day.

Mads Ostberg seems relatively safe in eighth place, while Guy Wilks is ninth after a day of car troubles.

Standings after SS20:

Pos   Driver        Car          Time
 1.   Gronholm      Ford         2h36:45.2
 2.   Hirvonen      Ford             +20.4
 3.   Loeb          Citroen        +1:00.5
 4.   Atkinson      Subaru         +2:41.3
 5.   H Solberg     Ford           +3:59.1
 6.   Pons          Subaru         +6:28.7
 7.   Aava          Mitsubishi     +6:41.6
 8.   Ostberg       Subaru         +8:01.9
 9.   Wilks         Ford           +8:56.9
10.   Kopecky       Skoda          +9:27.0