Gonholm spits out the dust after his crash

Gronholm, who needs a top-four finish to have a chance of overtaking absent leader Sebastien Loeb, led overnight after winning the first two stages.

But he rolled his Ford on Friday's first stage and dropped to 40th before clawing his way back up to 18th.

Gronholm said: "I made a stupid mistake and I'm so disappointed."

Fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen leads by 25.8 seconds from Petter Solberg.

Gronholm, who trails Loeb by 25 points with three races to go, lost far too much time after his enforced gearbox refit.

Although he won three of the final four stages, he still finished more than 12 minutes behind Hirvonen.

He said: "We had so much dust in the car that I couldn't breathe and couldn't see.

"My eyes hurt and I also hurt my back trying to push the car over. Now I will just try to finish and score points for the team in the manufacturers' championship."

Hirvonen, third in the championship but with no hope of winning the title, failed to win any of Friday's stages but his consistent driving saw him close the day with the overall lead.

He finished with a handy lead over Norwegian Solberg in a Subaru, with Spain's Xavier Pons almost another minute behind in his Citroen.

It was an eventful morning in Western Australia as home star Chris Atkinson crashed on the sixth stage.

He won the opening three stages on Friday but rolled his Subaru on loose gravel, starting a small fire and forcing organisers to cancel the stage for the production cars following behind.