Burns rallies but Finn moves up a gear to take control

Britain's Richard Burns takes a sharp turn during the Acropolis Rally yesterday as he tries to maintain his challenge to Finland's Juha Kankkunen. Kankkunen, who had started the day with a 27sec lead over the Mitsubishis of Burns and Finland's Tommi Makinen, had seen his advantage over Burns cut to 17sec at the end of the 10th stage, but slowly rebuilt it to 37sec over Sainz as the teams stopped overnight in Kamena Vourla. Burns was unable to match the Fords and, after a spin on the 12th stage, was overtaken by Sainz on the final stage of the day, the 14th of the rally. A victory for Sainz today would put him back in contention for the world championship, although Kankkunen will be keen to secure his first win since the Rally of Portugal in 1994

Photograph: Annia Ehrakis/Reuter