Burns was fourth in the Acropolis Rally

The world championship leader, chasing his first win of the year, was fastest in four of the day's seven timed stages.

Breathing down his neck was Peugeot team-mate Marcus Gronholm, the defending world champion, who was second overall 9.4 seconds back.

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, who won the rally when it made its world championship debut last year, was in third position, 10.3 seconds off the lead.

Burns set the early pace with the fastest time in the first two sections.

Ford driver Markko Martin was in third place overall when he clocked the fastest time in the third section through the vineyards of the Mosel Valley to move into second.

Estonian Martin then claimed the longest and trickiest timed stage of the three day event, a 35.42 km stretch on tank-proving grounds on a military range with many changes of surface, to take the overall lead.

But Martin experienced gearbox problems in the fifth stage.

Without his top two gears, he lost some 50 seconds while Burns sprinted to his third stage win of the day to move back in front.

Martin's misfortune left him out of contention at the end of the day in 10th position, 1:27 behind the leader.

Loeb broke the Burns-Martin duopoly on the day's timed stages with the best time in the penultimate stretch but in the final run Burns was quickest again.

There are nine timed stages in a busy programme on Saturday with more rough drives in the Baumholder military range.

1. Richard Burns (GB) Peugeot 206, 1 minute 08.45 seconds.
2. Marcus Gr�nholm (Fin) Peugeot 206, 1:08:54.5
3. Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen Xsara, 1:08:55.4
4. Colin McRae (GB) Citroen Xsara, 1:09:14.1
5. Gilles Panizzi (Fra) Peugeot 206, 1:09:28,2
6. Carlos Sainz (Spa) Citroen Xsara, 1:09:32,1
7. Francois Duval (Bel) Ford Focus, 1:09:35,0
8. C�dric Robert (Fra) Peugeot 206, 1:09:40.7
9. Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru Impreza, 1:10:00.0
10. Markko Martin (Est) Ford Focus, 1:10:12.7