SS10: Radstrom joins the fight for first

Carlos Sainz's Ford Focus is slowly dropping away from what is becoming a three-way fight for the lead as he struggles with his place as first car on the road, clearing loose snow and spectators from the stage for the rest, as Makinen did on leg one. "I'm trying my best," said the Spaniard, "but if you look at yesterday, Tommi wasn't very quick."

Makinen is talking down his chances of overhauling Rovanpera, saying: "We've already done the next stage once, so I'm fairly sure we can't make a difference there. Thomas [Radstrom] and I will be flat out to put Harri under pressure, but he drove well yesterday and again today."

Further back the battle is on for the final two points-scoring positions. Ford's Francois Delecour, Hyundai's Kenneth Eriksson and Peugeot's Didier Auriol are split by just 6.6s in fifth to seventh places. Delecour and Eriksson set identical times on the 15.3km stage, while Auriol is now feeling rather better and despite swapping places with Eriksson after SS10 has stopped the morning rot which saw him lose so much time on the first two stages of the day.

Fastest of all, as is now becoming the norm was Colin McRae in the Ford Focus, with his constant shadow Richard Burns nearest in the Subaru.

Surprise star Daniel Carlsson who is a remarkable 10th overall, having started down at number 44, again had his privateer Toyota Corolla WRC flying. The 24-year-old Swede, who is in only his second rally in a World Rally car, set the sixth fastest time on the stage. Carlsson would like to do more World Championship events with Toyota Team Sweden, but at the moment does not have a programme or a budget...


Colin McRae (GB)/Nicky Grist(GB), Ford Focus RS WRC*, 7m52.6s
Richard Burns (GB)/Robert Reid(GB), Subaru Impreza WRC*, 7m55.1s
Thomas Radstrom (S)/Tina Thorner (S), Mitsubishi Carisma GT*, 7m58.8s
Harri Rovanpera (FIN)/Risto Pietilainen (FIN), Peugeot 206 WRC, 7m59.3s
Tommi Makinen (FIN)/Risto Mannisenmaki(FIN), Mitsubishi Lancer*, 8m01.4s
Daniel Carlsson (S)/Benny Melander (S), Toyota Corolla WRC, 8m03.3s


Harri Rovanpera (FIN)/Risto Pietilainen (FIN), Peugeot 206 WRC, 2hr16m15.3s
Thomas Radstrom (S)/Tina Thorner (S), Mitsubishi Carisma GT*, +7.7s
Tommi Makinen (FIN)/Risto Mannisenmaki(FIN), Mitsubishi Lancer*, +10.2s
Carlos Sainz (E)/Luis Moya(E), Ford Focus RS WRC*, +17.1s
Francois Delecour (F)/Daniel Grataloup (F), Ford Focus RS WRC, +1m06.7s
Kenneth Eriksson (S)/Staffan Parmander (S), Hyundai Accent WRC*, +1m11.8s

*denotes nominated for manufacturers' championship points