Leg 2 (am): McRae holds slender lead

"On that last stage we lost 50 percent of power assistance on the steering for last section, so we lost time there," revealed McRae's so-driver Nicky Grist. "We're lucky it's service now, but other than that all's fine. Marcus [Gronholm] being so close doesn't worry us. I'm sure it will be a very good fight to the line."

The star of the first three stages was McRae's team-mate Carlos Sainz. After a disastrous opening leg, which left him down in 21st place, the double world champion has been in inspired form. He set the quickest time on the first two stages and was third quickest on SS9 to move himself into the top 15 and an outside shot of a championship point.

Tommi Makinen gave the top two something to think about on the last stage of the session. The Finn was over seven seconds quicker than anyone else over the 30 kilometres to close the gap to McRae to 24 seconds.

After a great opening leg young Belgian Francois Duval suffered heartache on SS9 when his engine lost oil pressure and power, and forced him out of the rally.

"I was going along normally then the oil pressure dropped suddenly and quickly," said the 21-year-old. "I'm disappointed because I was going well. I didn't feel any pressure and I was driving at my own pace.

"In conclusion it wasn't so bad. The traction control wasn't working this morning and there were a couple of misfires yesterday.

"I've learned a lot, but I'm sad not to be able to continue."

Also in trouble was the other Ford of Markko Martin, who had two punctures and dropped into the clutches of Harri Rovanpera and Richard Burns.

The world champion was lacklustre on the opening leg, but found his rhythmn this morning to move up from 10th to sixth.

It was a tough morning for Alister McRae. The Scot rolled on SS8, but managed to continue, although he's well down in the overall standings.

"The crash happened at a tight hairpin left with a narrow exit. We slid down a ditch and rolled onto its roof. We lost 1m40s in total. The car has light frontal damage, but it's cosmetic. It was bad luck but this is always a tough event."