Richard Burns was outgunned by Tommi Makinen on the opening stage of the second leg of the Corsica Rally and saw his overnight third slip one place as the flying Finn grabbed a place on the provisional podium.
Colin McRae's Ford again proved too much of a handful and has so far failed to move up the order, despite wet conditions that are known for favouring the Pirelli tyres used by both Ford and Subaru.
Peugeot's Gilles Panizzi and Marcus Gronholm were still out front, with Ford's new "find" Francois Duval powering his way into the top 10 at the Corsica Rally.
Rain awaited the crews in the mountains as they began today's second leg and the long 36.73-kilometre opening stage saw a new order among the fastest stage times.
Most of the drivers bravely favoured hand-cut versions of the dry weather tyres they were using yesterday but Duval played safe with heavily treaded wet weather tyres over the long stage.
With the longest stage of the event now behind them, the crews must tackle a group of three stages to the north-east of Ajaccio before lunch.
PA