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HELSINKI - Marcus Gronholm remained on course for a fourth straight Finnish Rally title after winning five of yesterday's nine stages.
The Finnish Ford driver and world championship leader appeared firmly in command of the rally with a lead of 20.4 seconds over compatriot Mikko Hirvonen, even though his team mate closed the gap with wins in the last two stages.
Defending triple world champion Sebastien Loeb of Citroen was third, one minute 0.5s behind Gronholm and is unlikely to threaten the Ford duo. Three stages were to be run overnight.
"I can't pull out much, because Mikko is driving very well," Gronholm said. "But it's all okay."
Although looking incapable of challenging Gronholm's supremacy on the forest tracks, Hirvonen was upbeat about his performance so far.
"I'm really, really satisfied," the Finn said. "Marcus has been faster most of the time, but the gaps have not been very big.
"But we are running out of time, there are not enough stages left. The gap to Sebastien is quite big now, but anything can happen so we need to stay focused."
Frenchman Loeb took his first stage win of the event in the day's opening Kaipolanvuori run but said the final day of the rally would serve as testing for Citroen.
"When I go through the stages I think that it is impossible to go faster, but the Fords show that it is possible," he said.
Norwegian Petter Solberg, the 2003 world champion, retired from the race after struggling from the start in his Subaru.
His brother Henning Solberg is in fifth. He trails Subaru's fourth-placed Australian driver Chris Atkinson by 1m 17.8s.
- Reuters
