SS18, Mari: Burns bites back; Colin still leads

Burns was 4.3s quicker than his Scottish rival through Mari, to leave the gap at 10.6s prior to the final batch of four stages, all of which are repeats and therefore unlikely to pose problems for Burns as he continues first on the road.

Carlos Sainz was second fastest for the fourth stage in a row and is now just half a second behind Marcus Gronholm overall. Gronholm was third fastest ahead of McRae on the stage, but is reported to be struggling to reach service.

Freddy Loix continues to mix it with the top runners and was fifth fastest. Mitsubishi's Belgian driver now looks to have a very real chance of taking fifth overall from Subaru's Toshi Arai, who was almost 20 seconds slower over Mari.

The works Skodas of Armin Schwarz and Bruno Thiry were sixth and seventh over the stage and hold the final two top 10 places, Thiry ahead of his German team mate.

For SS18 Mari results click here.

For full results table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.