Gronholm makes his move

The 39-year-old Finn, who suffered a terrible day on Friday due to a temperature sensor problem, was in inspired form on Saturday as he passed Dani Sordo, Chris Atkinson and Mikko Hirvonen.

Sebastien Loeb continues to lead the rally, with an increased advantage of 57.6 seconds over Gronholm.

The Frenchman was his usual calm and controlled self as he carried on his serene way towards a second straight Mexican win in his Citroen.

Loeb said: "Very good. Our gap is important, but Marcus woke up today and we have tro make sure he does not close up.

"For the championship it is better for Marcus to be further behind. Luckily I have a good gap now so we try to save our position."

Behind the front two, Hirvonen holds third in the second Ford, after he too pased Atkinson's Subaru during the morning loop. His advantage over his rival is just a tiny one tenth of a second though.

Dani Sordo dropped to fifth in the second Citroen, with Manfred Stohl's Kronos version next up.

Seventh and eight are the Stobart Fords of Jari-Matti Latvala and Matthew Wilson, while Gareth MacHale's privateer version still heads the Group N-leading Mitsubishi of Mark Higgins.

Henning Solberg in the third Stobart Ford continued his rise up the field, climbing from 19th to 12th.