UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 13 CARDIFF SUPER

1st (1) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautainen (Peugeot) 2.21.34.2

2nd (5) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Subaru) 2.23.09.6

3rd (16) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot)2.23.18.8

4th (10) Alister McRae/Dave Senior (Accent) 2.25.48.9

5th (11) Armin Schwarz/Manfred Hiemer (Octavia) 2.27.30.9

6th (9) Kenneth Eriksson/Staffan Parmander (Accent) 2.27.44.3

7th (2) Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet (Peugeot) 2.28.32.1

8th (12) Bruno Thiry/Stephan Prevot (Octavia() 2.29.14.4

9th (26) Gregoire De Mevius/Jack Boyere (Peugeot)2.31.50.7

10th (21) Toshihiro Arai/Tony Sircombe (Subaru) 2.32.48.1

11th (25) Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud (Subaru)2.35.54.0

12th (41) Ramon Ferreyros/Javier Marin (Lancer N)2.37.16.9

Just outside the leaderboard-Backlund 13th: D.Higgins 14th:

Loeb 15th: Blomqvist 16th: Ginley 17th: McShea 18th: Dallavilla 19th: Baldacci 20th:

Fireworks, flashing lights, beautiful Pirelli girls and lots of razzmatazz lifted the rally gloom as the 70 surviving cars tackled the Cardiff Super Special. Alister McRae in his Hyundai made personal history by being fastest car through the stage - Armin Schwarz was 2nd quickest and Kenneth Eriksson 3rd. Outgoing world champion Marcus Gronholm was 4th, the first time on Day 2 that he did not score a fastest time.

Lifted the gloom? The weather was misty, overcast and dark, as was the mood following Carlos Sainz' accident on stage 11 (Brechfa) in which spectators were hurt. Latest news is that 2 young people, one 12, one 14, had lower limb injuries. An adult has head injuries, none considered life threatening. 9 further casualties were discharged from hospital. Ford Rally Team Manager, Malcolm Wilson, reported "Carlos is very distressed. Naturally he did not want to continue in the rally. We will have to now work hard with the authorities to make changes in safety for the future". Ford subsequently withdrew all of the team, which meant that Mark Higgins had to give up a hard earned 5th place, compounding a miserable season for this obviously very talented driver.

70 starters on the Super Special? Just 69 finished. Oscar Svedlund's Lancer was stranded on the start line when the transmission broke. This left Niall McShea shooting around the "tandem" super special as a lone car. He had to be yellow flagged to a halt and given another attempt at the stage. Niall is fighting for every second now to try to close the gap on Super 1600 leader Sebastian Loeb in a similar Citroen, but with just 4 stages left on the Sunday leg, it looks an impossible task for the Ulsterman.

Richard Burns took the super special at good speed, but with no heroics, not like Harri Rovanpera who crunched the side of his car against a bridge parapet. For Subaru's Richard Burns the name of the game now is softly softly through the remaining 4 stages to secure the world rally driver title. For Peugeot, Ford's demise means that they take the world rally manufacturer's championship. More news from service. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON