Swedish Rally analysis

British rally fans, do not despair. Those who spent much of this week wringing out a tear-soaked Union Jack after Colin McRae's and Richard Burns's failure to scrape a drivers' point from the Swedish Rally need only look at the current standings for comfort.

Put simply, Sweden was disappointing for the pair from a sheer materialistic perspective, but they can both take heart from their respective performances. Strings of fastest times - admittedly set in favourable road conditions - showed that the new Impreza and revised Focus have the performance to offer their drivers the chance of victories this year.

The biggest boon for the Brits came on that dramatic final stage, when Tommi Makinen made an uncharacteristic error on a tyre gamble and beached his Lancer in a snowbank. Up to that moment, the four-times world champion had looked poised to add at least six further points to his victory tally from Monte Carlo. For Burns and McRae to be facing a 16-point deficit - with the new, improved Lancer still waiting in the wings for later this year - would have been decidedly more depressing for the pair.

Of course, they're not alone. Equally fancied runners like Marcus Gronholm and Didier Auriol have yet to get any points on the board, and they'll all have been slightly relieved to have left Sweden only the same distance off the championship lead that they were when they arrived.

Burns has already pointed out his belief that we're in for a year when a low score could be enough to win the title and we shouldn't be surprised. The World Rally Car formula is now in its fifth year, and the boundaries of the category are being pushed further at every start ramp. As such, retirements and technical glitches are always a possibility, and they're even more likely to be punished given the large number of decent drivers in pukka works machines.

In 1997, there's little doubt that a charging McRae might even have pushed his way back into the points in Sweden. But last weekend, there were just too many privateers in Corollas, not to mention manufacturer drivers like Kenneth Eriksson (Hyundai) and Bruno Thiry (Skoda) in his way.

If one thing can be learnt from Sweden, it's that the stakes are even higher this year than last, and that the potential margins for error have never been narrower. Whoever wins the title - low score or high - will have deserved his success.

Highlights from the International Swedish Rally will be shown on Grandstand (BBC2) at 13.30 this Sunday, and repeated the following afternoon at 13.10 on the same channel.