Gronholm moves into the lead

The Ford teammates are still separated by less than one second, but Gronholm moved ahead of Hirvonen during the second loop of stages on Friday.

The two Finns are scrapping for the lead among themselves at the moment, as Sebastien Loeb has not been able to match their pace so far.

"I knew that it would be like this with Mikko," said Gronholm. "He is coming very fast. We are a bit ahead of Sebastien, but there is a long way to go."

Hirvonen is enjoying his fight with his experienced teammate, but he also pointed out that Loeb could still be a factor in the rally.

"It's a fantastic, and I'm really enjoying it," he said. "It's good that Sebastien is behind, but we will see what he does tomorrow."

Loeb is now 11 seconds behind the leaders, and the reigning world champion has claimed that he has "no chance" of competing with the Ford pair.

"I'm trying really hard, but I cannot do anymore," he said. "I'm taking more risks than ever, I am on the maximum."

Chris Atkinson is still in fourth place, although the Australian felt that he was too cautious on some of the stages during the middle of the day.

Behind him, Petter Solberg was on form as his car improved after a dreadful morning, and the 2003 champion was very upbeat as he headed to the second service of the day.

"There was a hydraulic problem with the steering this morning," said Solberg. "The car is working better, but it's not perfect yet.

"It's a big difference over this morning though. If we improve the car some more anything is possible."

Dani Sordo was happy with his performance despite dropping a place to sixth, while Henning Solberg is only one second adrift of the Citroen driver.

Manfred Stohl is currently eighth, while Xevi Pons has moved into the top 10 on his first rally with Subaru.

Former rally leader Jari-Matti Latvala hit more trouble as he stopped towards the end of SS7, and other drivers reported that his car had lost a wheel.

Pos  Driver       Car           Time 
 1.  Gronholm     Ford          44:48.9
 2.  Hirvonen     Ford          + 0.8
 3.  Loeb         Citroën       + 11.7
 4.  Atkinson     Subaru        + 22.5
 5.  Solberg      Subaru        + 31.6
 6.  Sordo        Citroën       + 47.0
 7.  Solberg      Ford          + 48.7
 8.  Stohl        Citroën       + 1:08.5
 9.  Pons         Subaru        + 1:18.2
10.  Hanninen     Mitsubishi    + 1:23.8