Richard Burns led after the first day of the Rally of Finland as his Peugeot team were totally dominant.

The Englishman is 12 seconds clear of his Finnish team-mates Harri Rovanpera and Marcus Gronholm, despite a final stage win for Ford's Carlos Sainz.

Peugeot have held the upper hand throughout the day, emphasised by the fact Norwegian Petter Solberg in his Subaru was the best of the rest, over a minute behind.

Gronholm's performance was thwarted slightly by running first on the road and having to brush a light coating of loose gravel off the otherwise hard, smooth roads.

Burns admitted: "This is quite typical. I usually get off to a good start and then the Finns come back at me as the event progresses."

Should he manage to stave off their advances, however, he will become only the third driver from outside Scandinavia to win this event and the first Briton.

Solberg slipped past Ford's Colin McRae for fourth on the day's penultimate stage and gained ground on third-placed Gronholm.

---

Leading positions after stage nine (of 22) of the Rally of Finland on Friday:

1 Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 1h6m 08.1 seconds
2 Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Peugeot +12.0
3 Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot + 21.9
4 Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru +1:12.3
5 Colin McRae (Britain) Ford +1:16.8
6 Carlos Sainz (Spain) Ford +1:18.9
7 Sebastien Lindholm (Finland) Peugeot +1:31.7
8 Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru +1:42.1
9 Freddy Loix (Belgium) Hyundai +1:43.9
10 Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford +1:44.3