Matthew Wilson enjoyed a great battle with Chris Atkinson on day 2 of the Wales Rally GB.

Although the Stobart Ford man lost out to the Aussie on the first stage this morning, he refused to give up and cut the gap back to just 0.3 seconds in SS10.

Unfortunately though for the Englishman he lost out in SS11, SS12 and SS13 and eventually finished the day 10 seconds adrift.

Despite that though he remains upbeat and having once again set a host of top-ten times, he hasn't given up on securing sixth.

“I'm really pleased with how today has gone and it has been a great battle between Chris and myself all day. We have had no big mistakes all day and it has just had a nice rhythm to it,” said the 20-year-old.

“We lost a little bit of time on the last stage as one of the lights began to flicker but apart from that the car has been perfect. We still need to tidy up on the slower stuff but ok it has gone pretty well and it's lots of fun out there.

“Generally the feeling is very good, the car is working well and the confidence is high as a result. The road surface has also been more consistent today which has helped.

"I think the gap to Chris is still close enough to challenge tomorrow but they are two tricky stages, especially if it is wet, so we will have to wait and see what happens in the morning.”

Atkinson meanwhile wasn't very happy with his Subaru Impreza WRC this morning and complained of handling problems in SS8 and SS9. He was more content this afternoon though and will now be out to try and stay in front.

“Today has not been so easy for us,” he reflected. “The first stage of the leg was okay for us. I was driving comfortably - not going crazy – but keeping a good pace. But on the second and third stages we struggled.

“On SS8 we had a lot of understeer, and on the next one we had snap oversteer and damping problems too, so all we could do was try to get the car through in one piece

“The car was better in the afternoon though after we made some changes but it has not been easy in these conditions. We found more pace this afternoon and I took a few more risks to try and put a gap to Matthew because he's doing some good times. The main thing for us now is to make sure we get to the finish and get some good points,” he concluded.