SS10: McRae shows who's boss

McRae's lead is now up to 42.4s and though Burns was second quickest, the English Subaru driver will have to start making big gains on today's remaining stages if he is to put real pressure on his Scottish rival.

Carlos Sainz was best of the rest again, his Focus just 3.4s off McRae's time through the stage. Francois Delecour in the third Ford was fourth fastest and at his present rate, Delecour should be looking to overhaul Freddy Loix's Mitsubishi and move up to eighth overall on the next stage

Tommi Makinen's woes continue, the Mitsubishi star lost time with differential problems on SS9, and on SS10, the problem seems to have worsened - the Finn losing a full 57.3s over the relatively short San Agustin stage.

Makinen still has the 17.48km of the Amboy stage to complete before he can get the Lancer attended to in service. In the meantime he has already dropped to sixth place overall.

The Finn may have expected to drop all the way down to seventh, but Didier Auriol was also in trouble. A broken throttle on his Peugeot 206 cost the Frenchman around 90 seconds and pushed him down to seventh.

Marcus Gronholm time added to Peugeot team mate Auriol's problems with a fifth fastest stage time moving the reigning World Champion up to fourth overall.

Petter Solberg kept up his consistent pace with sixth fastest time and the young Norwegian moves up to fifth place overall, now well clear of the ailing Makinen.