SS2, Foini: Gronholm fights back for Peugeot

Following Rovanpera's suspension failure, compatriot Gronholm was a full 11 seconds quicker than Eriksson through Foini, with McRae a further four seconds back.

Subaru's Richard Burns was fourth fastest, with Ford's Francois Delecour and the Peugeot of fellow Frenchman Gilles Panizzi rounding out the top six times.

Freddy Loix was seventh quickest, with Didier Auriol just behind. The two drivers that lead the championship, Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz are slugging it out, with Sainz just edging it from the Finn on SS2 to take the ninth fastest stage time. Makinen's problems were confounded by damaging his front suspension on the stage and is almost a minute behind the leaders.

Petter Solberg, after setting the fastest time on SS2 has dropped down to 11th after his Subaru developed power steering problems on SS2.

Alister McRae will want to forget SS2 in a hurry. The Scot's Hyundai Accent was a victim of Cyprus' notorious rough stages, suffering a third puncture on SS2, following two puntcures on SS1. He finished over three minutes back from Gronholm.

And SS1 had to be delayed to allow fire trucks into to help the Subaru Allstar Hamed Al-Wahaibi whose Impreza had caught fire in the stage.

For SS2 Foini results click here.

For full results table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.