Leg 3am: Burns out!

The final leg of Rally GB kicked off with Solberg taking the fight to Markko Martin at the head of the leaderboard. The Subaru star was mighty through the mammoth 54.68km Resolfen stage, taking more than 20 seconds - and the overall lead - off the Estonian.

Martin fought back on SS15, regaining 7.5s of the deficit, but on the penultimate stage - Margam 1 - the Norwegian was again the class of the field, and extended his overall advantage to 21.3s. Surely only retirement stands ahead of the 28-year-old and his first WRC win.

Like SS10 on leg 2, SS16 proved to be leg 3's killer stage. Burns was not the only driver to experience difficulties and Citroen's Sebastien Loeb was another retirement after damaging the left front wheel of his Xsara. Harri Rovanpera also dropped well back when his 206WRC developed hydraulic problems.

Burns and Rovanpera's misfortune promoted Hyundai's Fredy Loix into the final manufacturers' point-scoring position, leaving the Korean marque fourth in the championship.