Hirvonen maintains advantage

The Ford driver shared the stage wins throughout the opening loop of Saturday with teammate Marcus Gronholm, but Solberg has been able to stay on the pace of the two Fords, and is just 26 seconds behind the leader.

"I know Petter is pushing and I am as well," said Hirvonen. "If he ups the pace then so can I."

Hirvonen has had to control his pace for the majority of the year as Ford has concentrated on Gronholm's championship bid, but with the former champion 12 minutes down he is being allowed to go for victory.

"I am enjoying this fight, it's great to drive like this and push all the way," Hirvonen added.

Solberg was still complaining of traction problems in his Subaru, while Gronholm wasn't too bothered about missing out on some stage wins to his teammate.

"I don't need to win stages, I just need to be quick," he said. "At this pace maybe I can take fifth but then it's up to the others."

Gronholm needs to finish third to keep his title hopes alive, but is down in 12th, still just over 10 minutes behind Manfred Stohl, who has moved ahead of Xevi Pons in a great battle for third.

After the third stage of the day the pair were tied for the final podium spot, but Stohl opened out a gap of 11 seconds over the next two stages.

Pons isn't too bothered just yet though, as he continues to do a solid job for Citroen.

"Manfred is pushing very hard but it's not a problem," said Pons. "There is a long way to go in this rally."

All of the remaining WRC cars returned to action today, except for Henning Solberg. However, Chris Atkinson was one to admit that he is not pushing hard, and is saving the car for the next event in New Zealand.

Toshi Arai holds fifth overall and the PWRC lead, but Gronholm is closing in as he charges past the slower cars, and is now just four minutes behind the fifth-placed car.

Standings after SS16:

Pos  Driver     Make        Time
 1.  Hirvonen   Ford        1:50:53.0
 2.  Solberg    Subaru      +    26.4
 3.  Stohl      Peugeot     +  2:08.2
 4.  Pons       Citroen     +  2:19.6
 5.  Arai       Subaru      +  8:56.5
 6.  Ligato     Mitsubishi  +  9:19.0
 7.  Latvala    Subaru      +  9:39.4
 8.  Teiskonen  Subaru      +  9:47.1
 9.  Herridge   Subaru      +  9:48.5
10.  Baldacci   Mitsubishi  + 10:32.0