Marcus Gronholm admitted he was in cruise mode as he extended his lead over title rival Sebastien Loeb in the Rally of Finland to more than a minute at the end of day two.
The Finn capitalised on Loeb's puncture on stage 12 to stretch his advantage from 12 seconds to almost one minute eight seconds, driving his Ford Focus to seven wins in the day's eight stages.
He is on course to make it six wins in seven years at his home rally, denying Loeb a record-breaking 27th WRC victory.
Gronholm said: 'We were going fast this morning, then Sebastien hit the rock in Ouninpohja and we have just been not really pushing 100% since then.
'I have a good feeling from the car but at the end of the day it was a little bit difficult, maybe the tyres were not perfect for the conditions.'
After his problematic day Frenchman Loeb will want to content himself with a second-place finish as he closes in on his third successive world rally crown.
The Citroen driver, who leads Gronholm by 33 points in the standings, said: 'The battle was over when I hit the rock.
'Since then there has been no point pushing and maybe make a mistake. I just had to keep up a good rhythm.
'I had a little problem in the last two stages. Under braking it was very hard to keep the car in a straight line, it felt like a puncture, but I don't think it was.'
Gronholm's team-mate and fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen lies third, almost two minutes behind, but there is a similar gap to the fourth-placed Peugeot of Henning Solberg.
Solberg's younger brother Petter is a notable absentee from the leaderboard, sliding off the road in his Subaru early in the day.
Another of those not participating tomorrow is Loeb's Spanish team-mate Dani Sordo, who crashed out in fifth place, while Australian Chris Atkinson has dropped out of the top 10 after car trouble.
Privateer Peugeot driver Italian Gigi Gallis took Sordo's place and is just ahead of Citroen privateer Janne Tuohino.
The top-eight's fourth Finn Jussi Valimaki is seventh in his privately-entered Mitsubishi and in the final points position is Skoda's Jan Kopecky, of the Czech Republic.
RALLY OF FINLAND
(Leg 2 Classifications):
1 M Groenholm (Fin) Ford 2:23:51.2
2 S Loeb (Fra) Citroen +01:07.8
3 M Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 01:42.5
4 H Solberg (Nor) Peugeot 03:37.0
5 G Galli (Ita) Peugeot 04:45.9
6 J Tuohino (Fin) Citroen 05:38.1
7 J Valimaeki (Fin) Mitsubishi 05:58.6
8 J Kopecky (Cze) Skoda 08:50.5
9 M Stohl (Aus) Peugeot 12:35.2
10 M Wilson (UK) Ford 13:14.5
