SS4, La Trona 2: Peugeot fights back

Didier Auriol went fastest over the re-run of this morning's La Trona test, closely followed by team mate Marcus Gronholm and the Citroen of Philippe Bugalski, but Jesus Puras has held onto the overall lead by 2.7s.

The Citroen pair of Puras and Bugalski have dominated the early stages of this, the debut event for the Xsara T4. But Gronholm and Auriol, who after 63.4km of stages are still within 0.3s of each other, went first and second on SS4, but remained second and third overall.

Richard Burns was back on the pace after early gearbox problems which were rectified at the day's first service area. The Brit was the highest placed non PSA car in his Subaru and finished sixth on the 12.9km stage, but remains a lowly 13th overall.

Freddy Loix finished seventh ahead of his Mitsubishi team mate Tommi Makkinen. The four-time world champ was lying second after SS3, but has dropped to fourth overall to split the Peugeots of Gronholm and Gilles Panizzi.

The Fords of Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz continued to struggle and went ninth and 10th fastest and occupy the same slots overall.


Didier Auriol, Peugeot, 8m26.2s
Marcus Gronholm, Peugeot, 8m26.5s
Philippe Bugalski, Citroen, 8m26.5s
Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, 8m28.5s
Jesus Puras, Citroen, 8m29.2s
Richard Burns, Subaru 8m30.8



Jesus Puras, Citroen, 39m50.7s
Didier Auriol, Peugeot, +2.7s
Marcus Gronholm, Peugeot, +3.0s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, +8.0s
Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, +9.6s
Philippe Bugalski, Citroen, +10.9s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, +24.7s
Francois Delecour, Ford, +26.8s
Colin McRae, Ford, +31.7s
Carlos Sainz, Ford, +35.3s