Stage nine: McRae takes charge

The Ford driver's advantage over Richard Burns is now up to 10.8s. Burns had earlier been gaining on the Scot after recovering from gearshift difficulties during the morning.

The other McRae had a less happy time on the Gratallops-Escaladei 2 stage, Hyundai driver Alister retiring from 28th place with engine failure.

Also in trouble, yet again, was Freddy Loix in the second Mitsubishi. The Belgian had to stop on a road section to fix a brake pipe and was late arriving at the stage control, being given a four minute penalty. This will drop him from eighth to 16th.

The Peugeot trio are swapping places between themselves, Gilles Panizzi moving up to fifth after Francois Delecour slowed with a suspected gearbox problem, dropping to seventh behind Marcus Gronholm in the third 206.

Overall positions after stage nine: