Solberg steals Acropolis lead

Gronholm had been leading the day's action with some stunning drives in the first three stages. Consolidating the Peugeot effort was team-mate Harri Rovanpera who kept Gronholm firmly within his sights.

By this point trouble had already struck championship contender Markko Martin (Ford) who skidded off the course and down a steep bank. Under the new SupeRally system introduced for this weekend's rally, the Estonian will be allowed to continue the rally on Saturday but will be unable to score points.

There was more drama to come with the stage temporarily stopped following an incident with Mitsubishi's Dani Sola and Ford Focus privateer Roma Kresta. Sola lost a front wheel on SS2 but carried on through SS3 trying to steer clear of other traffic. But when he pulled his Lancer over to let Kresta the Ford hit Sola's car and caught fire.

Solberg was keeping his nose in the action in third place ready to strike should the opportunity arise. SS4 granted him such a chance as Gronholm dropped 18.4s to the Norwegian putting him in second place overall, 8.3s adrift of Solberg.

Francois Duval revived Ford's effort following his team-mate's absence to promote himself to third after a cracking fourth stage while "road-sweeper" Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) was fifth overall behind Peugeot's Rovanpera.

At the end of the fifth stage Solberg has stretched his lead to Gronholm by just over 20s after he set his second fastest stage time on the 14.61km Stromi test. Loeb was second quickest elevating him to fourth overall behind Ford's Duval, who was the third quickest on the stage.

Peugeot's Rovanpera has dropped to fifth while Toni Gardemeister has got Skoda's return to the WRC off to a good start with sixth place overall.