UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 MARGAM

1st (1) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautainen (Peugeot) 2.02.09.3

2nd (5) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Subaru) 2.03.18.9

3rd (16) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot)2.03.35.5

4th (3) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford) 2.05.09.1

5th (10) Alister McRae/Dave Senior (Accent) 2.05.43.0

6th (11) Armin Schwarz/Manfred Hiemer (Octavia) 2.07.04.3

7th (17) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Ford) 2.07.16.2

8th (9) Kenneth Eriksson/Staffan Parmander (Accent)2.07.17.1

9th (2) Didier Auriol.Denis Giraudet (Peugeot) 2.08.10.4

10th (12) Bruno Thiry/Stephan Prevot (Octavia() 2.08.44.2

Early news in from the Margam stage is that Neil Wearden has clipped a wall and damaged the steering of his Subaru and has been forced to retire. Neil had been 11th.

Fastest through the Margam stage was Marcus Gronholm with a time of 16.26.2 for the 17.3 mile stage, Burns was 12s in arrears, Sainz was 2s slower than Burns, Alister McRae a further 10s back and then Mark Higgins, his Focus now fitted with a new gearbox after 4th and 5th gear problems in Resolven, a further 2s back. Freddy Loix was another to have gearbox trouble in Resolven, plus a broken damper, and he lost 50s penalty leaving service.

In Group N after stage 9 - Ramon Ferreyros still led from Backlund with David Higgins 3rd. Higgins was fastest gpN car through the long Resolven test, and told us "We made some adjustments to the centre differential and it has improved the car, we're closing the gap". Peruvian driver Ferreyros said "I got punctures in there last year and was being very careful. It is going well, but you know I have been driving in Peru all year, and there is a big jump from Peruvian rythym to WRC rythym". Other group N stories include..Jeremy Easson has retired, his Evo 7 suffering gearbox trouble. Bob Coulson was off the road this morning, losing about 7 minutes, he was up to 5th in gpN. Neil Buckley reports his Lancer away down on boost pressure. Gary Pesticchio stopped to change a puncture 8kms into Resolven. After that he clattered into some logs and let another car past, which was a mistake, because he was slower and Gary's car ended up with a smashed screen/lights from the flying stones. Ollie Clark is doing well in gpN despite early brake problems, Ollie 30th overall. Richard Davis was into the top 20 and lying well up in gpN, but lost a fair bit of time in Resolven when the engine went off song, and now it has become very noisy.

Niall McShea came out of the Resolven test in a complete sweat - had driven his heart out but was still slower than Loeb, and said "He must be something else - we are on the ragged edge, maybe there is a half second here or there, but we just can't see this time difference". Interestingly, Niall's tyres were completely shot - he had picked a slightly softer compound than Loeb. ABIRO (Association of British Rally Organisers) has made an announcement that there is an exciting package being put in place for the 2002 Open Rally Championship, catering for Super 1600, WRC, GpA, GpN and One Makes, and utilising all the classic rallies of the UK, plus an 8th Southern based promotional event. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON

Our thanks to Rally FM for their help this morning.