The Druzhnoselie stage was scheduled as Day Two's opening stage, but the 'zero car' crash this morning saw the run cancelled. This afternoon however all is going according to the plan, and the same can be said of Juho Hanninen's Russian campaign.

The works Skoda driver again signed a stage win, completing this nine-kilometre run in 4:15.8, continuing his perfect success rate and so far proving himself unbeatable in the high-paced gravel tests.

The Abarth team's Anton Alen - another Rally Russia winner - arrived at the finish line after completing a second-fastest performance 5.6sec behind the fellow Finn.

At the controls of the other official Skoda Fabia S2000, Jan Kopecky came close to overtaking Alen as his third-best result on this stage only added 0.9sec. However, Kopecky's position was more at threat since Patrik Flodin's Uspenskiy Rally Tecnica Team Mitsubishi crossed the finish line with a running time a mere 0.2sec longer.

Three different makes came next, with Giandomenico Basso's fifth-fastest Abarth Grande Punto preceding Aleksandr Zheludov's Peugeot and Guy Wilks' Proton Satria Neo S2000.

It remains to be seen if Wilks will concentrate on data gathering for his new car's development work or will actually try to push his way back up the standings following the time-costly puncture which occurred on the previous stage.

Juho Hanninen's overall advantage has increased again and now stands at 56.4sec on Jan Kopecky. Anton Alen is an additional 1:02.8 further back in third place, 28.6sec ahead of Giandomenico Basso. Patrik Flodin remains in fifth position but Aleksandr Zheludov is on the attack and nearing in. Guy Wilks comes next, 28.8sec away from the Russian ahead.

The repeat passage over the Losevo stage appears next on the programme.