RALLY NEWS NO.4           Builth Wells..Friday 6.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 (MYHERIN)
1st (5) Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford WRC) 1.15.40.0
2nd (10) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Peugeot WRC) 1.15.59.7
3rd (6) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford WRC) 1.16.31.3
4th (1) Tommi Makinen/Risto Mannisenmaki (Lancer) 1.16.32.6
5th (3) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Subaru WRC) 1.16.38.3
6th (7) Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet (SEAT WRC) 1.16.40.8
7th (4) Juha Kankkunen/Juha Repo (Subaru WRC) 1.17.04.4
8th (9) Francois Delecour/Daniel Grataloup (Peugeot WRC) 1.17.12.2
9th (19) Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (Peugeot WRC) 1.17.24.4
10th (21) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Corolla) 1.17.24.5

Colin McRae put the pressure on over the last 2 stages to push the gap between himself and Marcus Gronholm up to 20s with Carlos Sainz now a further 30s back.  Colin's co driver Nicky Grist remarked here on the way into service "Everything went according to plan on stages 7 and 8, it shows that when we get things right it is very positive".  Gronholm slowed ever so slightly in stage 7 when the in-car computer flashed a warning that the centre differential was showing a fault. Co driver Timo Rautiainen switched the car on to fixed centre differential mode and Marcus drove with a little care to the stage finish - this was with 7kms to go.  Marcus and Timo reckoned it was possibly a faulty sensor message, switched the diff back on and there was no problem through stage 8.  Carlos Sainz had a good run through 7 and 8 while Tommi Makinen was disappointed with his performance through Hafren and Myherin.  "It was a mistake with the wide tyre, the good confidence feeling was not there, we did not realise how muddy it would be and also the half light was difficult". 

Richard Burns has rocketed up the leaderboard to 5th and said "Tomorrow I will focus on Colin - I had a 6th gear half spin ins tage 8 which was quite exciting. Tomorrow's stages may suit us better, it can't be much worse than at times today".  Didier Auriol found stages 7 and 8 very difficult with the darkness and also said about the engine "The bang bang not work properly and we had one bad 6th gear moment into ditch".  Juha Kankkunen's co-driver Juha Repo told us "We lost some time in stage 8 when we go into very dark cloud after 10kms, like big fog, otherwise quite good. There are 4 or 5 cars close together, conditions are tricky, anything can happen. We were very lucky this morning, when we hit the log pile, and the front right and rear left wheel angles were not so good after".

Other stories from stages 7 and 8 included…Petter Solberg had 2 punctures on the left hand side of his Subaru when he clipped a rock and also had a huge spin in stage 7, but still his times were good and he is up to 18th overall. Tapio Laukkanen is now 11th, Tapio not so happy after Myherin, saying "I drive too carefully and stalled the engine at the hairpin, but at least we are here".  Alister McRae is now 14th and still feels the engine is down on power, wants a turbo change.  Harri Rovanpera is in 12th, his SEAT team mate Gardemeister 13th. Armin Schwarz 15th, Gwyndaf Evans 16th. Manfred Stohl leads gpN from Trellese with Backlund 3rd and Ferreyros 4th, just ahead of Harkki.  Greek driver John Papadimitriou is now 31st.  Mark Higgins continues to lead F2 just ahead of his team mate Neil Wearden.  Eamonn Boland is now the top Irish driver in 38th overall, the Hertz man enjoying himself and the stages enormously.  Marcus Dodd is intent on keeping the car all in one piece today and is handily placed in 25th.  Mark Fisher is back in 51st place after his earlier suspension problems. After stage 6 Niall McShea was 37th overall, first in class, the Saxo having suffered a broken exhaust which made the pace notes hard to hear. More news later..BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON

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