SS5, Prastio: Delecour wins short dash

Delecour's time of 6m40.2s was less than one and a half seconds quicker than second placed Burns, with Delecour's Ford team mate Colin McRae a further three seconds back.

But rally leader and reigning world champion Marcus Gronholm lost time on the short stage; his Peugeot 206 WRC finished almost nine seconds slower than the Subaru of Burns. His slip means that Burns is just 0.4s behind the Finn heading in to the last of Friday's stages, the re-run of the 30.29km Foini stage.

Another Scandanavian to lose time was Sweden's Kenneth Eriksson. He could only manage the eighth fastest time through SS5 and he loses third place overall to Colin McRae.

Freddy Loix is carrying the flag for Mitsubishi following Tommi Makinen's retirement on SS4. The Belgian was fourth quickest through SS5, thus overtaking the Ford of Carlos Sainz for seventh place in the rally, just behind Subaru's Petter Solberg and Delecour.

Sainz was sixth fastest on Prastio, less than a second behind Didier Auiol in the second Peugeot.

For SS5 Prastio results click here.

For full results table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.

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SS5, Prastio: Delecour wins short dash

Ford's Francois Delecour headed the stage times on Leg 1's shortest timed section, the 11.06km Prastio test. But all eyes are on the overall Cyprus Rally leaderboard as Richard Burns cut the gap on Marcus Gronholm to less than half a second

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