Hirvonen still ahead after day 2

The lead pair were almost inseparable all day, and Hirvonen's lead increased by just 5.9 seconds from yesterday.

However, while the Finn has said he is enjoying the fight for the lead, his main priority is still to score points for Ford's manufacturers' title bid.

"If Petter catches me I will not risk everything to stay ahead, because the points are more important than the win," said Hirvonen, who is yet to win a WRC event.

Solberg will be ruing the 27 seconds he lost due to the dust during SS9 on Friday but said that he is pleased to still be in contention.

"If Mikko makes a mistake or backs off, we will be right there straight away. Hopefully the car will be better tomorrow on the looser gravel, because we have made some changes," he said.

Manfred Stohl continued to make third place his own after being locked in a close battle with Xevi Pons during the morning.

The Peugeot driver had been struggling for confidence on Friday but said he was feeling much better now and is more than 20 seconds ahead of Pons.

"It has been OK today, the car was good," said Stohl. "Our set-up is good now, so I'm optimistic for tomorrow."

Marcus Gronholm is up to seventh and is less than a minute behind Production WRC leader Marcos Ligato in fifth. But the Finn admitted that his title chances are effectively over.

Top 10 leaderboard after Leg 2:

Pos  Driver     Make          Time
 1.  Hirvonen   Ford          2h 17:01.8
 2.  Solberg    Subaru        +     32.3
 3.  Stohl      Peugeot       +   2:36.9
 4.  Pons       Citroen       +   2:57.0
 5.  Ligato     Mitsubishi    +  11:25.3
 6.  Latvala    Subaru        +  11:53.1
 7.  Gronholm   Ford          +  12:04.6
 8.  Teiskonen  Subaru        +  12:14.0
 9.  Herridge   Subaru        +  12:29.0
10.  Baldacci   Mitsubishi    +  13:04.0