McRae: Damage was avoidable

McRae had been lying seventh overall, just one place out of the World Rally Championship points, with five of the day's seven stages completed. But in SS11 - the second of three stages in a row - the Focus hit a baseball-sized rock in the road, which bent the sumpguard up into the power steering pump.

With no service before the final stage, he was forced to manhandle his car through the final, sinuous 30 kilometre test, losing over three and a half minutes and dropping to 12th overall in the process.

"We hit a rock in the road about 10 kilometres from the end of the second stage," said McRae, "but it wasn't a very big rock."

When quizzed on the nature of the damage, McRae retorted:" Ask (technical director) Gunther Steiner or (team principal) Malcolm Wilson. It was only a matter of time before it happened - it was bad engineering."

Although he was not explicit in pin-pointing a particular area, McRae is believed to be referring to an alleged weakness in the sumpguard. Testing for the Safari Rally is thought to have shown up a potential flaw in the guard.

McRae's Corsica Rally had looked to be taking a turn for the better when he set the fastest time on Leg 2's fourth stage, but in the afternoon it all went wrong for the Scot.


McRae's drama (coupled with brake failure for his team mate Francois Delecour) took the pressure off Richard Burns, who can possibly look to team mate Markko Martin to sacrifice a place and let the Englishman into the points by the end of the event.

"It's fine," said Burns, who suffered from minor gear selection problems. "I don't think we can catch Markko on speed, so we'll just have to make sure we're there if anything happens to him."

Up at the front, the Citroen/Peugeot trio of Jesus Puras, Gilles Panizzi and Didier Auriol continues to set the pace with astonishing reliability.

Although Peugeot lost Marcus Gronholm today, the reigning champion now finally out of this season's title chase, Panizzi and Auriol look set to bring home a maximum points haul for the Peugeot camp. Meanwhile Spaniard Puras seems to be on course for the first 'premier league' victory of his career and the first for Citroen's Xsara WRC.

Just four stages lie in wait for the crews tomorrow (Sunday) but with 111.68kms of asphalt and the ever-present threat of rain falling after tyre choices had been made (as happened today), it will be no easy drive to victory. However, mechanical dramas aside, it is hard to see the leaderboard changing much.

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