Rally Sweden leaders Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen both say this afternoon's four stages will be pivotal in the direction of the event. The Finns are running one-two and admit they are loving the fight against each other.
Leader Lavtala said: "This afternoon will be really important. We have an advantage and we have to manage it. We expect there will be some more gravel coming and we will have to see how bad it gets, Fredriksberg is probably going to be the worst stage for the gravel, but we'll see how it goes. It's certainly good to be fighting with Mikko."
Hirvonen remains 18 seconds adrift of the lead, but he insists he has not given up on a third straight win in Sweden.
"It's still possible to win, for sure," said the Citroen driver, who was previously Latvala's team-mate at Ford. "But we have to make everything is going right. We had some trouble with the tyres yesterday and maybe this afternoon we have to be more careful with them. I'm trying to stitch Jari-Matti up between the stages on the road section, but the trouble is that he is getting a little bit older and wiser now!"