Gronholm increases his lead three-fold.

Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm took another two stages wins this morning on the opening loop of the second leg of the Rally Finland, to stretch his lead from 5.8 seconds last night to 14.8 seconds going into Service F - almost a three-fold increase.

The Finn's lead though was cut to just 2.3 seconds following the first test this morning - SS11, which was won by his nearest challenger, Sebastien Loeb. Gronholm though came back through Ouiinpohja, which has been split into two this year after organisers were concerned about safety, and he restored his 5 sec cushion in SS11, before increasing that margin further in SS12.

Further down the field the leader-board has remained pretty static, with Markko Martin still third, followed by Toni Gardemeister and Petter Solberg, in fourth and fifth respectively. However well just 5 seconds separated the trio last night setting up a grand battle for the final podium position, they are now split by a less exciting 15 seconds.

Mikko Hirvonen meanwhile lies sixth, while the final provisional points scoring positions are held by Harri Rovanpera and Francois Duval.

Of the three 'works' retirees on leg 1, Gigi Galli and Chris Atkinson both re-started this morning under the SupeRally system, however Jani Paasonen did not.

Peugeot test driver, Sebastian Lindholm was also unable to start the second leg after doctors said his co-driver, Tomi Tuominen, wasn't well enough to continue. Tuominen suffered back injuries after a heavy landing on SS5.

A number of drivers had problems through SS10, SS11, and SS12. Citroen privateer, Manfred Stohl retired after his Xsara WRC landed awkwardly and went off the road after a jump in Vaheri, while Galli went out again, when his car shot off the road in SS12 and went into a large tree. Ford's Roman Kresta also suffered in the same test when his car slid off the road and into a muddy ditch. Spectators eventually helped the car back onto the stage, but the incident dropped him from 26th to 37th position overall.

In the Junior WRC, Kris Meeke lost his lead after problems in SS11. Daniel Sordo therefore now heads the class in the sister Citroen C2, followed by Suzuki's Urmo Aava and Guy Wilks.

After the finish crews returned to Jyvaskyla for a 30-minute service. The action now resumes at 11.44 hours local time [9.44 hours British time], with Urria - SS13 [10.00km].