CS4: McRae throws down gauntlet

The Ford driver covered the longest stage in this year's WRC - 106.56km from Ntulele to Kedong - in just a shade over 51 minutes, which left his rivals floundering in his dust. Harri Rovanpera was the next quickest, over 30 seconds down on the 1991 world champion. However, the Finn's charge was good enough to lift him into fourth place overall.

Such was Makinen's advantage going into the final stage that although he lost 2m14s to McRae he goes into leg two tomorrow with a slender lead to defend. He will have the full attention of the Subaru team in his bid for victory after Petter Solberg was forced out of the event. The engine problems the Norwegian suffered on CS3 proved to be terminal and his Impreza didn't make it through the the long haul.

Alister McRae's chances of scoring a point have ended after he hit a rock and broke a wheel and some components. The Mitsubishi driver limped through the stage and his Ralliart team needs to thoroughly check the Lancer to see if the Scot will be able to compete tomorrow. However, the amount of time he lost means that a top six finish is now out of the question barring a miraculous performance.

Despite dropping over three-and-a-half minutes to the stage winner, Skoda's Kenneth Eriksson remains on course to score some championship points. The Swede has dropped to fifth, but has over 30 seconds in hand over Markko Martin in sixth and more than five minutes advantage on the seventh-placed Citroen Xsara of Thomas Radstrom.

Reigning world champion Richard Burns dropped yet more time to the leading runners and he's now 15 minutes adrift of Makinen in eighth place.

Toni Gardemeister was another driver who didn't make it to the end of the mammoth stage, the Octavia driver's left rear wheel fell off 85kms in, putting a premature end to his rally.