Andreas Mikkelsen pulls out big lead in Rally of Scotland

Only two of this afternoon's planned three stages were run as heavy rain meant conditions on the scheduled Drummond Hill closer were declared too bad for the stage to go ahead.

Mikkelsen's increased cushion was due in part to the speed that saw him win the Craigvinean and Errochty stages that did take place, but also because erstwhle challenger Thierry Neuville spun twice on Errochty and broke his Kronos Peugeot's reverse gear.

That cost Neuville just over 50s, and saw him drop from second to fourth place.

Bryan Bouffier therefore moved up to second in the PH Sport-run Peugeot France entry, but the Monte Carlo winner is just a second ahead of resurgent reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Juho Hanninen, who has been happier with his Skoda this afternoon - although still unable to match Mikkelsen's times.

There was heartbreak for Proton during the midday service. P-G Andersson had been running fourth and fighting for a podium in the team's most competitive IRC performance since Alister McRae's second place on this event two years ago, but he picked up substantial penalties when his Satria refused to start in the regroup. Andersson is now back in 12th, with erstwhile leader Guy Wilks 15th for Peugeot UK and Kronos following his earlier accident.

Craig Breen has advanced to fifth in his Kel-Tech Ford, right behind the delayed Neuville.

Attrition ahead has allowed championship leader Jan Kopecky to progress to seventh for Skoda, 10s behind Skoda Sweden's Patrik Sandell.

Leading positions after SS8:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK               58m52.8s
 2.  Bryan Bouffier     PH/Peugeot France       + 50.7s
 3.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda                   + 51.7s
 4.  Thierry Neuville   Kronos/Peugeot Belux  + 1m25.8s
 5.  Craig Breen        Kel-Tech Ford         + 1m28.5s
 6.  Patrik Sandell     Skoda Sweden          + 1m33.9s
 7.  Jan Kopecky        Skoda                 + 1m43.4s
 8.  Jarkko Nikara      Mitsubishi (private)  + 2m22.2s
 9.  Toni Gardemeister  TGS Skoda             + 2m27.3s
10.  David Bogie        Mitsubishi (private)  + 2m33.0s