SS6, Valkola 2: So close at the top

Marcus Gronholm again was fastest, notching up his fourth stage victory of the day. The Finn's time of 4m27.4s was just slower than Harri Rovanpera's benchmark when the cars first went through Valkola on SS1, showing that the surface is not slowing down that much on the re-run - for the leading contenders at least.

Because the times were so close, not much has changed on the overall leaderboard, with Gronholm still leading from team mate Harri Rovanpera and Subaru's Richard Burns.

However Gronholm's other Peugeot team mate Didier Auriol - perhaps with a point to prove after being passed over to score manufacturer points for the second rally in a row - was second fastest through the stage, one tenth of second slower than the world champion.

Carlos Sainz is making amends for his mistake on SS5, when he overshot a junction, to record the third quickest time on SS6. But there were problems for his Ford team mate Francois Delecour. The power steering on his Focus failed and the Frenchman finished the short stage 16 seconds off the pace.

Petter Solberg was the leading light for Subaru on SS6. The Norwegian has experienced mechanical difficulties on the first day, but managed to set a time fourth fastest, just half a second slower than Gronholm.

Rovanpera and Colin McRae round out the top six times, both within a second of Gronholm's time.

Further down the leaderboard, the two Hyundais of Alister McRae and Juha Kankkunen stopped the clocks at exactly the same time on SS6 - 4m33.8s.

For SS6, Valkola 2, results, click here.

For full live timings table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.