SS15, Vavatsinia: Gronholm's hot... Too hot?

Over the 19.02kms of SS15, Vavatsinia, the first stage of the final leg, Subaru's Burns lost a second to Ford's Colin McRae, who is running second on the road, four seconds to Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm, who is third on the road, and three seconds to fourth on-the-road Carlos Sainz in the second Ford.

At this rate, with three more fresh stages to run before the rally moves onto repeated stages, the top four look odds-on to be separated by only a few seconds as they head into the deciding sections.

The tyre battle brings an added twist. Pirelli sources say that they expected rival Michelin (which supplies only Gronholm in the top four) to have had an advantage over SS15. However, they are also suggesting that the reigning World Champion's pace might have been a little too hot, leaving him with tyres too worn to allow him to maintain his speed over the three stages the cars still have to complete before they can fit fresh rubber at service.

The top four are well clear of the field, but there could yet be a fight for fifth between Subaru's Toshi Arai and Mitsubishi's Freddy Loix. Despite a spin, Loix reduced Arai's advantage by 5.4s over the stage. The Belgian still has to take 57.3s back from his Japanese rival over the remaining seven sections.

Alister McRae moved up the leaderboard in the remaining Hyundai. The Scot's fifth fastest stage time moved him ahead of Bruno Thiry's Skoda in to eighth place overall, but he faces a tough battle to improve further - seventh-placed Pasi Hagstroem is 1m34.9s ahead. Hagstroem leads the FIA Teams Cup privateer class in his Toyota Corolla WRC.

For SS15 Vavatsinia results click here.

For full results table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.