Brits battle for Catalunya lead
Colin McRae leads into the second half of day two of the Rally Catalunya, but has seen his advantage slashed dramatically by the flying Richard Burns
The Subaru driver led the event overnight but lost time this morning with gearbox problems, allowing McRae to take over at the head of the field, only for the Scot to escape a near-miss on stage eight.
'We arrived slightly too fast at a junction,' he explained. 'The car slid wide and the engine stalled. I guess we lost about ten seconds restarting.
'Apart from that everything was good so we're still happy.'
Burns is now just 3.3s behind McRae, but his Subaru team mate Juha Kankkunen may be forced to retire after crashing on the La Riba 1 stage. He limped back to service but is now 31st overall.
Carlos Sainz runs third, ahead of Tommi Makinen. The Finn was fastest on SS8 but criticised spectator control on the stage.
'There were many spectators in the stage, with lots of cars parked much too close to the side of the road,' he complained.
Overall positions after stage eight:
1 |
Colin McRae |
Ford Focus |
1h54m41.5s |
2 |
Richard Burns |
Subaru Impreza |
1h54m44.8s |
3 |
Carlos Sainz |
Ford Focus |
1h55m00.3s |
4 |
Tommi Makinen |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
1h55m05.0s |
5 |
Francois Delecour |
Peugeot 206 |
1h55m33.1s |
6 |
Gilles Panizzi |
Peugeot 206 |
1h55m36.6s |
7 |
Marcus Gronholm |
Peugeot 206 |
1h55m55.3s |
8 |
Freddy Loix |
Mitsubishi Carisma |
1h56m44.6s |
9 |
Markko Martin |
Toyota Corolla |
1h57m17.0s |
10 |
Armin Schwarz |
Skoda Octavia |
1h57m18.9s |
11 |
Didier Auriol |
SEAT Cordoba |
1h57m20.2s |
12 |
Andrea Navarra |
Toyota Corolla |
1h57m31.6s |
13 |
Toni Gardemeister |
SEAT Cordoba |
1h57m49.5s |
14 |
Henrik Lundgaard |
Toyota Corolla |
1h57m56.4s |
15 |
Andrea Dallavilla |
Subaru Impreza |
1h58m21.0s |
16 |
Luis Climent |
Skoda Octavia |
1h59m32.3s |
17 |
Fabrice Morel |
Peugeot 206 |
2h01m01.0s |
18 |
Kenneth Eriksson |
Hyundai Accent |
2h02m01.6s |
19 |
Renato Travaglia |
Peugeot 306 |
2h0m35.2s |
20 |
Abdullah Bakhashab |
Toyota Corolla |
2h02m43.6s |
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