Stage five: Kankkunen crashes out
Juha Kankkunen is out of the Rally Australia after striking a tree stump early on SS5
The Subaru driver had been running a close third until ripping off his right front wheel in the incident around 1km into the Beraking stage.
The battle for victory is still between Didier Auriol and Colin McRae, but Tommi Makinen was fastest of all on the stage and is clawing his way back into contention. Now running third with the demise of Kankkunen, if the positions stay as they are then the Finn will have done enough to claim his fourth championship in a row.
Carlos Sainz has also been on the move, after a slow start to the event he is up to fourth place. The other main casualty of SS5 was Peugeot's Francois Delecour, who lost a minute with gearbox problems. He managed to continue but has dropped outside the top ten, seemingly unable to find any gears below fourth.
More news to follow...
Positions after SS5, Beraking:
|
1 |
Didier Auriol |
Toyota Corolla |
27m02.5s |
|
2 |
Colin McRae |
Ford Focus |
27m05.2s |
|
3 |
Tommi Makinen |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
27m10.2s |
|
4 |
Carlos Sainz |
Toyota Corolla |
27m17.3s |
|
5 |
Richard Burns |
Subaru Impreza |
27m25.5s |
|
6 |
Harri Rovanpera |
SEAT Cordoba |
27m32.6s |
|
7 |
Freddy Loix |
Mitsubishi Carisma |
27m45.4s |
|
8 |
Marcus Gronholm |
Peugeot 206 |
27m49.1s |
|
9 |
Toni Gardemeister |
SEAT Cordoba |
27m50.8s |
|
10 |
Thomas Radstrom |
Ford Focus |
28m20.0s |
|
11 |
Neal Bates |
Toyota Corolla |
28m35.2s |
|
12 |
Francois Delecour |
Peugeot 206 |
28m51.6s |
|
13 |
Yoshihiro Arai |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
29m18.6s |
|
14 |
Hamed Al Wahaibi |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
29m20.9s |
|
15 |
Katsuhiko Taguchi |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
29m30.2s |
|
16 |
Yoshihiro Arai |
Subaru Impreza |
29m33.3s |
|
17 |
Kenneth Eriksson |
Hyundai Coupe |
29m38.4s |
|
18 |
Gustavo Trelles |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
29m41.8s |
|
19 |
Ed Ordynski |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
29m44.0s |
|
20 |
Uwe Nittel |
Mitsubishi Lancer |
29m45.0s |
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