Rally Argentina, SS6, San Marcos Sierra: Burns takes first stage win

Richard Burns turned up the heat to take his first stage win of the 2001 Rally Argentina by demoting Colin McRae into second place on SS6 for the first time on the event - but the Burns still lies a massive 46.4s behind the Scot in the overall standings

May 4, 2001, 5:09 PM

McRae has dominated the rally so far on today's (Friday's) stages and the two Super Specials on Thursday, but said at the La Cumbre service that he expected to struggle on the following stages. Burns put a stop to the Ford star's string of stage wins by putting his Subaru Impreza 1.1s ahead of the M-Sport-run Focus.

Harri Rovanperra continued to show his pace for Peugeot with the loose surface specialist finishing third ahead of Mitsubishi's Tommi Makinen, who finished fourth to make safe his third spot overall.

Defending world champ Marcus Gronholm stayed in touch with the leaders in fifth, while Carlos Sainz stayed fourth overall in the second works Focus with sixth place.

The size of McRae's lead belies the closeness of the overall times, for the top seven drivers on the short 9.61km stage are all covered by little more than three seconds, with 3.8s behind Burns in seventh position.