Mads Ostberg was quickest for a second straight stage as the Rally Sweden contenders had their first run through the Hagfors test that will be used as the Power Stage this afternoon.
The Adapta Ford driver was 1.9 seconds faster than second-quickest man Petter Solberg (Ford), his rival for the final podium spot. The gap between them is now just 4.9s with three stages to go.
Despite going quickest, Ostberg felt the stage conditions had been tough.
"There is a lot of snow in the road, it’s very difficult to keep the line, and there are some big rocks in the road," he said.
"You need to follow the lines, but then there is the risk of a puncture. We were pushing quite hard on the last two stages so the tyres are not perfect."
Overall top two Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen - who are now split by 35.6s in the outright standings - both took a cautious approach, though they were still third and fourth in the stage results.
"I just tried to avoid everything and get around the rocks," said Citroen driver Hirvonen. "It’s so rough and rutted, so many rocks. It’s very tricky."
His Ford rival added: "There are a lot of rocks visible and I tried to take it easy. Maybe my time wasn’t the quickest. I tried to be a bit sensible."
After allowing Sebastien Loeb to gain a little on the previous stage, Evgeny Novikov put his foot to the floor again on stage 21.
"On this stage I tried to push a bit, but not maximum-maximum," he said. "I can go faster on the Power Stage. The plan on the next two stages is to take it easy. Loeb does not worry me. Then on the Power Stage I will push to the maximum."
Loeb, who is 41.4s behind Novikov and now a comfortable 20.7s ahead of Henning Solberg was another man to go gently through stage 21.
"It’s not only slippery, you have some big stones everywhere on the road," he said. "We will have to go slowly on the Power Stage."