McRae Jr calls for fairer seeding system

McRae, who leaves Hyundai to join Mitsubishi next year, spent much of this weekend's event running first or second on the road and clearing the treacherous ball-bearing gravel for the world championship frontrunners coming behind.

"We need to do something about a seeding system that takes from the strong and gives to the weak," said McRae after struggling at the foot of the top 10 for the entire weekend. "It's been like Robin Hood in reverse here, but it's a bad way to attract manufacturers and help young drivers."

Running order on the first day of a WRC event is decided by championship positions, and after that according to positions on the rally. However, in Australia a new method was adopted to prevent drivers from slowing down at the end of a Leg to get an optimum slot for the following day. The top-placed drivers were therefore given first choice of road position.

Hyundai team boss David Whitehead echoed McRae's criticism of the system by saying that he hoped it would not be used again on future World Rallies.

"Clearly, we have been significantly handicapped in this event due to the unique seeding system that was used," said Whitehead. "Having said that, we [the teams] all agreed to test this system at Rally Australia, in order to evaluate it's suitability. Now having tested it, I feel confident that we will not be using this controversial system again as it disadvantages a few cars for the entire event."

For Rally Australia results, click here.