He said: "I'm not worried at all, there are sixty points still to gain and we're only fifteen behind leader Burns."
The Subaru driver saw his 14-point World Rally Championship lead diminish with a non-finish in the New Zealand Rally.
The English driver has 38 points and tops Peugeot's Finn Marcus Gronholm by four, and Scotsman Colin McRae of Ford by eight.
The Neste Rally Finland seems to suit home drivers - since its inception in 1973, Finns have won every year except 1990 and 1992.
Burns said: "I have to keep my feet down in about 300 places where my brain says 'no'."
Latest version
Home favourite Tommi Makinen, winner of the last four world titles, hopes that the latest version of his Mitsubishi will carry him to a sixth victory in Jyvaskyla.
He said: "I'm not worried at all, there are sixty points still to gain and we're only fifteen behind leader Burns."
Carlos Sainz of Spain, a Ford driver, is fourth in the standings, 11 points behind Burns.
Finland' s Juha Kankkunen, world rallying's biggest winner with 23 victories, prevailed last year but is expected to play second fiddle to Burns on the Subaru team if the Briton is in a position to score points.
The Neste Rally Finland is the ninth in the series of 14 events. It consists of 23 special stages, totalling 410km, and a total distance of 1,680km.
The ultra-fast course is dotted with bumps on the road, many of them unsighted till the car is already on top of them, and it takes a certain courage to tackle them at high speed.
Hard and fast
1990 winner Sainz said: "Finland is always special. It's a real test. The roads are so hard and fast that the positioning of the car is crucial.
"If you go into a bend at 200km/h just centimetres away from
the correct trajectory, that can make a real difference in your
positioning for the next bend.
"If you slow a little to correct your line, even just for 0.1sec, you can lose an enormous amount of time. There's not much chance of beating the Finns here."
Other Finnish drivers who could feature on the leaderboard because of their local knowledge include Sebastian Lindholm of Peugeot.
The Toyota Corollas of Harri Rovanpera and Markko Martin and the Ford Focus of Tapio Laukkanen should also be in contention, as could the Ford Focus of Norway's Peter Solberg.
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