Fans court danger in Spain
For the second World Championship round running spectator safety worries have prompted drivers to speak out. Massive crowds on the Catalunya Rally's ninth stage (La Riba 1) caused many drivers real anxiety. Subaru's Richard Burns was one who backed off because of the problem
Burns was confronted by a sea of people on the stage. "In one place they were parting as we came towards them," said the Englishman, "and on quite a few corners I consciously backed off, because if I went off I'd have taken out a lot of people."
"It's a long time since I've seen the road open up before me like that," added Burns' co-driver, Robert Reid.
Skoda's Bruno Thiry was if anything even more worried. "I caught Markko [Martin] near the end of the stage, so I had his dust in some corners and these bandits were jumping round in the road. If something happened there we could wave goodbye to rallying."
Hyundai's Alister McRae highlighted the problems posed by the sheer size of the crowd. "There were too many spectators," said the Scot, "If you had an accident, you'd go into people, nothing else."
The stage is scheduled to be used again later this afternoon as SS12.
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