Richard Burns set himself up for a world championship showdown with former champions Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen by finishing runner-up to current title holder Marcus Gronholm in the Telstra Rally of Australia in Perth today.
Gronholm, who was awarded this event last year on the disqualification of Makinen, crowned himself king of the outback with a superb performance in the bush. Although the Flying Finn failed to win any of today's four stages he had done enough yesterday, with five stage wins out of the six contested, to justify his superiority over his rivals in the 1400 kilometre rally.
Although Subaru driver Burns took the first stage of today's competition, the 34.57km Bannister West River section, he was content to consolidate his second position rather than run the risk of creating problems for himself by attacking Gronholm's lead. In the end, Burns finished 40.4 seconds behind the winner but was comfortably ahead of Gronholm's current team-mate Didier Auriol, who finished third.
McRae, who battled to success in three of today's four stages, took the two valuable fifth-place points to lead the championship table on 42 by just one point from Makinen with Burns on 40 points.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
