Mitsubishi and Loix making progress.

The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets have made significant inroads on the Tour de Corse leaderboard today, the result of considerable progress on the development of the Lancer Evolution WRC.

From an overnight 32nd they now hold 14th position, demonstrating the potential of the car when they set a time that was a mere 5.8 seconds off multiple stage winner, asphalt ace and current rally leader for Citroen, Jesus Puras.

Today's second leg took the remaining 71 contenders over seven special stages and 155.55 competitive kilometres of tortuous, twisty mountain roads and, unlike yesterday, conditions were changeable. As crews got caught on dry weather tyres when the rain intensified in the middle group of stages, some benefitted, powering through the streams of water running down the roads, while others struggled for grip, losing precious time in the slippery, leaf-strewn stages. While Puras leads, and Peugeot hold second and third positions with Gilles Panizzi and Didier Auriol respectively, Ford driver Colin McRae has dropped down the order with power-steering problems this afternoon and, as a consequence, Tommi Makinen looks set to hold onto the Championship lead for Mitsubishi going into Rally Australia, the penultimate round of the series.

With the amount of time lost in the opening leg, Freddy Loix is now using the event as a competitive test and development session. And, as his stage times improved - including fifth fastest in stage 10 - so he and Sven Smeets powered through the leaderboard.

"We changed some of the transmission and suspension settings last night and the feeling in the car was better," said Loix. "We concentrated on the transmission and once we were happy with that, began working on the suspension to try to improve the car further. We can take better lines and attack more now, and bit by bit we are definitely moving forward."

Adding to Loix's comments, chief engineer Bernard Lindauer noted: "The car's getting better and better after each service. The changes we made before the start of the rally were clearly a move in the right direction, but the limited amount of time at shakedown meant we couldn't finalise the settings. But we're obviously pleased we're getting closer to the pace, and I'm also sure Tommi (Makinen) could have got a good result here had he not had his accident."

The final leg of the 45th Rallye de France / Tour de Corse starts on Sunday at 08:50 hrs (local) for the concluding four stages and 111.68 competitive kilometres, before returning to the port in Ajaccio for the finish at 14:45 hrs (local).