McRae: Give us Brits the credit we deserve

The Scottish Ford ace headed home Englishman Burns' Subaru by 16.4s on the ultra-rough Cypriot stages, with Spain's Carlos Sainz taking third for Ford, another 10.1s behind the Impreza driver. In contrast, the top Scandinavian was Finland's Pasi Hagstroem in sixth, some 9m32s behind McRae, after the likes of Tommi Makinen, Marcus Gronholm and Harri Rovanpera failed to go the distance.

"Maybe the days of the Finns are over?" grinned McRae after taking his second victory of the season and the 22nd of his WRC career. "It would be nice to be asked why British rally drivers are so fast for a change..."

McRae's win has vaulted him into third in the drivers' standings, just seven points behind Makinen. And with another rough surface event up next, McRae is confident of mounting a genuine title attack.

"For sure, we're now in the running for the championship," he said. "With a good result on the Acropolis, we'll be right up there."

Cyprus became a tactical game of dare over the opening two legs, with the driver who judged it to perfection and started the final leg behind the 'road-sweeping' leader having the best chance of success on the final day's eight-stage charge. But McRae, who started the final leg in second overall, believes it was less crucial than many believed it would be.

"The cleaning of the stages by the guy in front was pretty much at a minimum," he shrugged. "In fact, I thought today would be a lot tighter and closer than it turned out to be. It is close, but I thought it would be a matter of a few seconds."

Burns, too, was surprised by the size of the final margin, saying: "Colin took more time than I expected. I tried everything I could, but the gap still took me by surprise a little."

Burns, one of the pre-season favourites, has yet to win a rally this season, but moves into fourth overall with his second runner-up finish in a row.

"We wanted to be winning these rallies, not second," he said. "But at least it is second, instead of not finishing at all. At least it helps us in the championship."

The teams now have just a week to re-group before embarking on the recce for Greece's car-breaking Acropolis Rally, which runs from June 15-17.

Click here for the Championship standings.