Halli Service I Notes

Asked whether he woke up this morning believing he was going to win the rally, Gronholm said: "I think that was the idea. We were to hold position. Richard (Burns) is really attacking now and we had a heavy vibration for the last 10km of that stage (SS11). It was like the mousse was breaking up in the tyre."
(Peugeot) - second +22.5s:"I had a puncture on the left front for the last 10km. Anything could still happen."

(Subaru) - third, +28.7s: "I'm a little bit surprised I took so much time (out of Gronholm/Rovanpera's lead), but the tyres are perfect and I took some risks. I think the last two stages will favour the Peugeots, but I'll try to get Harri."

(Ford) - fourth, +37.9s: "There's always a good chance this was going to happen. Richard was always going to push like hell. We'll need others to hit problems now to improve our position. If we don't, three points over Tommi (Makinen) is quite good."

(Subaru) - fifth, +1m16.3s: The Estonian complained he had chosen too hard a compound for his Pirelli tyres. He also stalled on a hairpin on SS19.

(Subaru) - eighth, +2m43.1s: Solberg stalled on the same hairpin as team mate Martin.

(Mitsubishi) - 12th, +5m13.3s:Toni hit a stone at a junction half way through SS19, knocking the right rear wheel out of line. This made it extremely difficult to drive his Carisma on the very fast sections towards the end of the stage.

(Hyundai) - 15th, +6m43.9s: Alister clipped a rock 15km on SS19, causing a puncture on the right front of his Hyundai Accent. The mousse system didn't work and he had to change a wheel in the stage.

(Skoda) - 16th, +7m49.9s:"Everything was fine until 25km in when the front shock absorbers went quite soft."
Armin is suffering from an ear infection, but the German says he is feeling much better although he is not sleeping particularly well.