RALLY NEWS NO.5                            Felindre/Service/Friday 5.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADEROARD AFTER STAGE 6 RHEOLA 2
1st (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru) 1.30.30.8
2nd (18) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara WRC) 1.30.37.0
3rd (8) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 1.32.01.9
4th (17) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Xsara WRC) 1.32.12.7
5th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (206 WRC) 1.33.08.7
6th (21) Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (206 WRC) 1.33.16.3
7th (5) Francois Duval/Stephane Prevot (Focus WRC) 1.34.03.8
8th (22) Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek (206 WRC) 1.34.30.4
9th (2) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (206 WRC) 1.34.47.7
10th (34) Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (206 WRC) 1.35.13.8

4 kilometres from the end of stage 6, Rheola, a front right tyre of Petter Solberg's Subaru suddenly lost pressure and instead of being on course to post a superb time the Norwegian was struggling to get to the end of the test.  It is a measure of his ability that he lost just 1.6 seconds to Sebastien Loeb, Petter's Subaru doing most of those last 4 kms on just 3 tyres and a rim.  Co driver Phil Mills couldn't see that they had hit anything on the roadside, just one of those things that happen in rallying. Loeb said "For me it is going better now, a good tyre choice".  When asked about the world championship situation and concentrating on manufacturer points rather than driver points Sebastien said. "For me it is not the best solution, it is easy to make mistake when not flat out". 

Colin McRae turned in a good time through stage 6, he said "The car feels right, a lot better than it was, the engineers changed the discs and pads and also adjusted the centre differential which was slipping. I will have a go at catching Tommi in the morning if the conditions are right, dry, and the car is good".  Tommi Makinen reported going over some big rocks in the road, damaged the sump guard and maybe the exhaust, felt perhaps the power was down.  Duval in the Focus had a soft brake pad after 10kms of the Rheola stage, picked a harder compound tyre, and set quite a good time. Harri Rovanpera had a very good time and reports no problems. Gardemeister dropped a lot of time, almost 5 minutes, he "I think we only had one wheel drive in there, a differential problem, this rally has not been kind to me".  Didier Auriol had been in trouble earlier with the handling, felt it was a differential problem. Said the car was good for 20kms of Rheola then started to understeer and oversteer like hell all over again.  Didier has asked the team to change the front and centre differential. 

In the Junior WRC Daniel Carlsson still leads in his Suzuki from Kris Meeke's Opel - Meeke was slowed when he slid into a ditch in stage 4 and damaged a suspension strut. Had to drive with caution through stage 5.  The strut was changed at service but he is still exercising caution, and Carlsson is going very quickly.  Baldacci in the Fiat Punto is 3rd in the JWRC, Tirabassi 4th. 

Jimmy McRae is 27th overall, Jimmy lying back in the driver's seat of his Subaru when he reached service "in" control, just like the "old laid back" legend that he has always been.  A stage 5 puncture was of little consequence to Lanark man.  Julian Reynolds is 23rd having survived a huge moment in the Resolven stage when he passed Tomasz Kuchar who was struggling with a blown turbo on his Lancer. Reynolds' windscreen got covered in a layer of mud, couldn't see a thing and went into a ditch for quite a few seconds.  Lucky to survive unscathed.  Irish driver John O'Leary had to stop and change a puncture in the stage, losing quite a few minutes. Dougie Hall was delayed with electrical problems, and then his Lancer gear linkage jumped off at a hairpin. He stopped and fixed it but it jumped off again so he just left the car in 3rd gear for the rest of the stage.

In GpN Gavin Cox still leads from Geoff Jones - the latter's Subaru had a gearbox changed and is now going well.  Bijvelds survived an engine problem in stage 5, and is still 3rd in gpN after stage 6.  
More news later. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON