RALLY NEWS NO.3                         Felindre/Service/Friday 1pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 RHEOLA 1
1st (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru) 49.57.4
2nd (18) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara WRC) 50.02.1
3rd (8) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 50.55.7
4th (17) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Xsara WRC) 51.12.8
5th (21) Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (206 WRC) 51.31.9
6th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (206 WRC) 51.39.4
7th (5) Francois Duval/Stephane Prevot (Focus WRC) 51.48.8
8th (22) Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek (206 WRC) 52.17.2
9th (2) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (206 WRC) 52.50.8
10th (25) Daniel Sola/Alex Romani (Xsara) 52.52.9

Petter Solberg roared his Subaru through to fastest time on stage 4, Rheola, to take the lead of this Wales Rally GB while sadly Markko Martin's Focus stopped on the run out to the stage.  The battle for the World Rally Drivers Championship is now a straight fight between Petter Solberg and Sebastien Loeb, but the news is already indicating that Citroen Team Manager, Guy Frequelin, will request Loeb to concentrate on getting the car to the finish to try to win the Manufacturers Championship.  Solberg's time for that 32.58 km Rheola test was 17.58.6. Loeb was 9s slower, Tommi Makinen a further 8s back in 3rd quickest.   Solberg commented at stage finish "Very happy , that was my best stage so far".  Loeb said "I made a wrong tyre choice, the tyres should have been a harder compound".  Tommi Makinen observed at stage finish that he was a lot happier with his car, the engineers had raised the ride height at the back and it was working very well.

Not so happy was Didier Auriol, he was having a problem with the centre diff and his Skoda was wandering on the fast straights.  Francois Duval had a new set of notes for the stage and found it difficult.  Despite a spin Freddy Loix found his Peugeot much more comfortable.  Roman Kresta went straight on at the end of a big long straight, was lucky not to hit anything and was able to continue unabated.

Looking back one stage - Tomasz Kuchar was leading group N in his Lancer from Martin Rowe in the Subaru with Gavin Cox up to 3rd. 

In the JWRC young Ulsterman Kris Meeke still led in his Opel from Daniel Carlsson in the Suzuki by just 4s with Mirco Baldacci 3rd in his Fiat, Baldacci is 10s behind Carlsson. Sandwiched in there is Jean-Joseph in his Renault - but he is not registered for the Junior WRC.  Brice Tirabassi has reportedly broken suspension on stage 4, and has stage 5 to complete before service. Guy Wilks (Puma) has power steering problems in stage 4.

Some other interesting positions in the overall order after stage 3 - Irishman Eamonn Boland in 34th. Alistair Ginley was 20th despite having to pass 2 cars in stage 2 and 2 cars in stage 3.  Jim McRae is up to 26th in his GpA Subaru. Pentti Airikkala (GpA Subaru) is now 48th, the Finnish driver reporting "We lost 60 horse power somewhere, they escaped, after 5kms we lose more power, it is mysterious. Also we lose some of the driver, maybe not the clutch but the transmission. It is too complicated for me, but the car is fun to drive".  Jim McRae said "Everything is fine, I'm just blowing away the cobwebs".  Julian Reynolds was 22nd after stage 3 but reported his Subaru to be misfiring a little. Gwyndaf Evans is leading his class and said about his gpN Mg "It is very forgiving, we need a different style, trying to conserve the car".  Co driver Claire Mole commented "We're having fun".  Geoff Jones was right up in there in gpN initially, but lost gears in stage 3, while he was fiddling with the gears he ran wide on a corner and sustained a puncture.  Although in the top 20 Tapio Laukkanen is having a miserable rally so far, with all sorts of transmission/hydraulic problems which is messing up gear change and differential action.

NEWS JUST COMING IN….unconfirmed…..both Pentti Airikkala and Martin Rowe have crashed in stage 4….
More news after stage 5…….BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON