Alister McRae keeps pushing.

The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of Alister McRae and David Senior hold 11th position at the end of the second leg of Rally Argentina.

The event started early this morning, just 50 of the original 68 crews heading north from Villa Carlos Paz for another nine stages and 153.79 kilometres of competition.

The weather remained overcast with cooler temperatures and, while the route was a carbon copy of yesterday's, road conditions were tougher on man and machinery and a number of leading crews have hit problems or retired during the day.

The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of Alister McRae and David Senior started the day in 13th position and, like many of the top contenders, failed to escape unscathed in the opening stage, the British crew dropping 2 minutes 45 seconds when a hose clip on the pipe into the inlet manifold broke, resulting in a loss of turbo boost. The crew replaced the clip on the road section and went on to set eighth fastest time in stage 11.

"The conditions in stage 10 were okay because the stage had not been used yesterday, but we lost boost after about three kilometres," said Alister. "The second one was rutted and rough but the last section was good - fast with some big jumps and quite challenging. This rally is pretty unpredictable and we're still pushing hard because as we've seen, anything can happen to anyone."

In the middle group of five stages, McRae lost some time to Hyundai driver Juha Kankkunen, but went on to finish the leg without incident. "We had no problems in the middle group of stages, but we lost a bit of time to Juha in the tight and twisty sections," he continued. "When the stages are open, fast and flowing the car is going better and you can use the lines of the road more. There's still a fair way to go, new stages that we haven't run yet and, while there are only four of them, they are pretty demanding roads."

Adding to Alister's comments, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Derek Dauncey said: "It was disappointing Alister had a problem caused by such a small part breaking, but that's the way it is sometimes. We are still on a learning curve with this car and obviously all the data we are collecting will help us with the step 2 version later in the year. I think we have to be honest and say our main focus is now really on that project because we are aware of where we have some problems."

Meanwhile...

In the opening stage - which failed to run yesterday for safety reasons - no fewer than five of the leading contenders hit problems, some forced into retirement on the road section to stage 11. Rally leader Marcus Gronholm lost 50 seconds with a lack of hydraulic pressure and then dropped another 36 seconds in stage 11, slashing his advantage over Subaru's Tommi Makinen to just 16 seconds. Peugeot team-mate Harri Rovanpera was forced into retirement with engine problems and Freddy Loix joined him on the sidelines with an electrical problem on the throttle sensor. Adding to Peugeot's woes, Gilles Panizzi retired late this afternoon with a problem connected to the engine cooling system.

However, Gronholm's loss of time this morning paved the way for Tommi Makinen (Subaru) to launch an all-out assault on his fellow countryman. Throughout the day the rivals have traded times, but Makinen inched into the lead in the penultimate stage and finished the second leg just half a second ahead of Gronholm. Behind them, Richard Burns (Peugeot) has maintained a comfortable third position, while the battle for fourth between Petter Solberg (Subaru) and Carlos Sainz (Ford) has raged throughout the day. Despite a gear selection problem in SS13 - remedied with a new gearbox ECU on the road section - and bad stomach ache, Solberg has held off Sainz, who has had little more than a broken windscreen to contend with.

Ford team-mate Colin McRae has fared better today, the Scot enjoying a trouble-free run and climbing from ninth to sixth position. Markko Martin, in the third Focus RS, holds seventh, the Estonian lucky to escape a roll in SS16 after sliding into a bank, and being visibly shaken when spectators launched a rock at his Focus in the final stage, breaking the windscreen. The two Skodas of Toni Gardemeister and Kenneth Eriksson hold eighth and ninth respectively, with Juha Kankkunen, in the sole remaining Hyundai, 10th.

Still to come...

The final day of Rally Argentina takes the crews to the Traslasierra region, southwest of Villa Carlos Paz, for the shortest leg of the event. Including just four stages and 73.87 competitive kilometres, the route may look like a cruise to the finish but, with some of the event's most famous stages still remaining, the fight will surely go to the final kilometre.