Stage 13: McRae closing in on Gronholm

The Ford Focus driver is now only 19s behind his Finnish rival after a blistering performance on Jutbvo, the longest stage of the event.

Earlier in the day Gronholm had extended his advantage to over 30s but he was only fourth fastest on SS13, nine seconds off McRae's pace.

The battle for second place has now spread out, with Tommi Makinen and Thomas Radstrom both losing time to McRae on Jutbo. Richard Burns is closing in however, while the main action further down the top ten is provided by the battle for eighth place. The increasingly impressive Markko Martin took another 15s out of Didier Auriol's advantage on SS13 and is now only 6s behind the 1994 world champion.

Overall positions after SS13, Jutbo:

T Makinen 26m35.6s

R Burns 26m37.0s

M Gronholm 26m39.1s

T Radstrom 26m39.6s

J Kankkunen 26m48.5s