SS21, Ouninpohja 2: Gronholm wins

Burns set the fastest time through the 25.20km Ouninpohja test, stopping the clocks at 11m43.6s. After crossing the line the Subaru driver said: "I hope it was good enough to keep Colin behind. That would be fantastic."

And it was - but only just. Ford's Colin McRae was next up, just half a second slower than Burns. The Scot had said after the first of Sunday's stages that his only realistic chance of making up places would be if those ahead ran into problems, and that proved to be the case.

Rovanpera, who was second overall before the last stage, finished over 21 seconds back from Burns after his 206 WRC developed damper problems on Ouninpohja.

"I'm delighted," said McRae. "We were happy with fourth, so it's very good. After Tommi [Makinen] went out [on the first day], we had to get as many points as possible, so this is excellent."

Behind Gronholm, Subaru's young gun Petter Solberg upped his pace on the re-run stages of the final day which was enough to move him up to seventh overall after setting the fourth fastest time. Solberg's team mate Markko Martin was close behind in fifth. The Estonian has been the faster of the two Subaru youngsters on this weekend and he was rewarded with fifth overall.

Sebastian Lindholm finished three seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz's Ford to record the sixth fastest time on the stage. The Spaniard did enough to hold on to his sixth place overall and take the final world championship point.

It has been a miserable rally for Mitsubishi. Championship leader Makinen retired on the very first stage of the event on Friday while Freddy Loix suffered from a mystery brake problem all day on Saturday to leave him well down the leaderboard. Then as if to compound the team's woes, Toni Gardemeister rolled out on the last stage on Sunday. Both driver and co-driver were uninjured.

For SS21, Ouninpohja 2 results and final standings, click here.

For full live timings table click here.