Sainz and Radstrom battle for third.

With just the 21.21km Hagfors stage remaining, Carlos Sainz and Thomas Radstrom are engaged in a thrilling battle for what should be the final podium place.

The Spanish driver further reduced Radstrom's advantage through the 14.76km Sagen and 23.41km Rammen stages, the gap now stands at just 4.2sec going in to the final test.

"We're not going to take any chances because I'm driving at the limit already and I don't want to risk losing what I already have," said the 38-year-old Ford Focus RS WRC driver. "It would be nice to make the podium but I'm not sure whether we can do it. There was a lot of gravel and ruts in the last stage which weren't good for our tyres but this final stage hasn't been used yet so should be better."

Team-mates Thomas Radstrom and Tina Thorner are also on the limit: "We went on the wrong tyres this morning, but we're pushing quite hard while trying to stay on the road and not make mistakes", said Thomas. "It's still not a big margin, so we have to concentrate".

Meanwhile, Tommi Makinen continues to push hard in second, determined to power his Lancer Evolution to a fourth victory in Sweden. However, competition at the head of the leaderboard is fast and furious, Rovanpera pushing to the limit in the Championship winning Peugeot 206.

Tommi, and co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki, nevertheless took time out of their fellow Finn in the first of these two stages, narrowing the gap to 15 seconds, but lost out in the following stage, reverting to an almost unassailable 18.6 second deficit, unless Rovanpera hits problems in the last stage of the event.

"It's hard to tell what's going to happen now", commented Tommi. "It sounds like there is a little too much time to catch up and the last stage is very difficult. It will be good to see and we have to push until the very end".

Fran?ois Delecour and Daniel Grataloup remain in fifth, although both Toni Gardemeister and Petter Solberg are within 10 seconds of the French pair's Focus RS.

"The car seems more difficult to drive today," said Delecour. "There may be a problem with differentials and we'll check those at service but I'm driving flat out yet losing time to Toni and Petter. It will be very hard for me to keep fifth place."
Ford Martini team-mates Colin McRae and Nicky Grist finally completed their climb back into the manufacturer points following the retirement of sixth-placed Didier Auriol (Peugeot) on Sagen with transmission problems. But the Britons have also narrowed the gap to Kenneth Eriksson to just 7.2sec and the Swede is very much in McRae's sights going into the Hagfors test.

"Yes, Kenneth is my target," said 32-year-old McRae, now lying 10th. "There's nothing else we can do, we're pushing as hard as we can and it looks as though we might manage it if we have a clear run."

Crews now face the final and decisive stage of the rally - the 21.21 kilometre Hagfors stage.