Britain's Kris Meeke is on course to secure his second World Rally Championship round after extending his lead at the end of day three at Rally Finland.
The 37-year-old headed into Saturday with an 18.1 second advantage over Jari-Matti Latvala but the Finnish driver struggled to keep up with the dominant Citroen DS3.
Meeke won four of the seven stages on Saturday, including the opening Ouninpohja, regarded the sport's most biggest test, and a second on it's "little brother" Paijala at stage 14.
The Citroen driver was within one second of the leader of any stage he did not win to put him in a great position to win on his first race back since victory at the Rally of Portugal in May.
"Now we really have to do a job," the Northern Irishman told wrc.com. "We have to manage our position and that's the difficult part of the job. We did it when we won in Portugal earlier this year and in Argentina last year and we'll use that experience on this one."
Meeke finished with a time of two hours and 22 seconds, 41 seconds ahead of Latvala with Ireland's Craig Breen a further one minute and two second behind the Finn. Estonia's Ott Tanak sits in fourth with Belgium's Thierry Neuville in fifth.
In WRC2, home favourite Esapekka Lappi also extended his lead over compatriot Teemu Suninen to 46.9 seconds with Sweden's Pontus Tidemand in third with a difference of 58 seconds. Britain's Elfyn Evans bounced back from sixth to ending the day in fourth while Karl Kruuda's Fiesta R5 sits in fifth.
Source: PA
