Jari-Matti Latvala seized the lead in the Acropolis Rally on Saturday as the Volkswagen driver took advantage of a puncture suffered by first day pace setter Evgeny Novikov.
The Finn will go into the final day with a lead of 1min 04secs lead over Citroen’s Dani Sordo of Spain with Belgium’s Thierry Neuville third in a Ford Fiesta a further 39secs back.
Latvala is set to close ground in the overall standings after entering the weekend fourth and 73 points behind championship leader Sebastien Ogier of France.
Ogier bounced back from a disastrous opening day when he was penalised 10 minutes due to technical problems and climbed to 10th overall, just two places behind former world champion Mikko Hirvonen, who encountered major steering problems with his Citroen on day one.
Light rain towards the finish allowed the three leaders to ease home.
“I was a little worried when I saw the rain because I thought it was going to get slippy,” explained Latvala.
“Okay, we lost grip in one or two places, and went wide a couple of times, but otherwise it turned out to be a good stage.”
The 28 year old is bidding for a eighth career victory and first since the Rally of Wales in 2012.
Norwegian Mads Ostberg, who started the event fifth in the driver standings, also returned to form after difficulties on Friday and moved up from ninth to sixth in the second Ford.
There are four specials on Sunday.