Burns won't admit title defeat... yet.

Reigning world champion Richard Burns says he won't give up on retaining his title until the stats say it is impossible for him to do so, but admits team-mate Marcus Gronholm would need to make some pretty big mistakes to allow him to keep his crown.

Gronholm has a 13-point lead over Burns as they prepare for Rally New Zealand, which kicks off with a ceremonial start in Auckland on Thursday, before heading out to the fast gravel stages on Friday.

"The championship is being dragged away from me by Marcus," said Burns. "But I know until every single mathematical possibility has receded then you always hope and always try your hardest. Out of the next three rallies basically I need to win two and have a good result in the third with Marcus not scoring - that's very unlikely. But as always, I'll be doing all I can to make sure I maximise my chances."

Burns is a fan of the New Zealand event, but with Day Two of the rally kicking off a 6am and finishing at 11pm, he did say there could be one improvement.

"Like many people I think the stages are the best in the world," he said. "The only way it could be improved would be to alter the timetable so that there are fewer early mornings and late nights. Our mechanics basically don't sleep from Friday because of the distances involved and the timetable."

His co-driver Robert Reid, meanwhile, said they had discovered how Gronholm has been able to set fast times on gravel rallies this year, despite having to sweep the roads clear of loose stones thereby clearing a supposedly faster route for those behind to follow.

"New Zealand is a rally where you cannot afford to lose any time on the first day, but it's almost impossible not to if you are running at the front of the field," said the Scot. "But we are running second on the road behind Marcus tomorrow and the last time we had that on gravel was in Cyprus this year.

"At the time it was amazing the speed that he [Gronholm] was able to take into corners, despite all the loose gravel on the road," he said. "We felt that it was almost impossible to follow his lines and consequently we discovered something about the car which made Marcus go so fast on loose gravel. That's the setting we have been using on the car ever since. So hopefully we will be able to capitalise on that here.

"In Finland, Richard adopted a new style of driving the car on gravel," explained Reid. "In shakedown we tried our old style and also the Finland style and it's clear that the Finland style is the quicker one.

"So I think you will see the level of performance like you saw in Finland. Richard seems to have taken a big step forward in how to drive the car."