SS20, Talviainen 2: Harri shows pace

Rovanpera's time makes safe his second place overall from the charging Richard Burns, who after going fastest on the previous stage could only manage fourth on SS20. The Subaru ace must now look to defending his third position overall after losing three seconds to Ford rival Colin McRae, who came in second just 3.6s behind Rovanpera.

Petter Solberg outpaced Subaru team mate Burns to set the third fastest time and move up one position overall to take seventh place from Sebastien Lindholm, who finished eighth.

Markko Martin finished fifth on the 30.30km section in the third Subaru to make it three Impreza WRCs in the top five.

Overall leader Gronholm put in a time 7.9s slower than Peugeot team mate Rovanpera, and despite being cautious about the size of his lead at the last service, the Finn is still comfortably at the top of the leaderboard with 14.6s in hand.

The reigning world champion shared sixth place with the Ford Focus of Carlos Sainz after setting exactly the same time as the Spaniard. Carlos remains comfortably in sixth overall behind Martin.

The Mitsubishis of Toni Gardemeister (ninth) and Freddy Loix (11th) were separated by the privateer Toyota of Pasi Hagstrom, who rounded out the top 10. Kenneth Eriksson was 12th in his Hyundai Accent WRC.

While the Peugeots of Gronholm and Rovanpera hold station in first and second overall, asphalt expert Gilles Panizzi is struggling on the Finnish gravel in the third 206 WRC in 13th.

"I liked the last stage," said Panizzi. "You have to know this rally very well to go fast. But it is so fast and so difficult."

For SS20, Talviainen 2 results, click here.

For full live timings table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.