RALLY NEWS NO.11                    Felindre-Sunday  1pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 15 Rheola 2
1st (11) Petter Solberg/Philip Mills (Subaru) 2.58.18.0
2nd (6) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford) 2.58.30.8
3rd (1) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Peugeot) 2.59.13.9
4th (4) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford) 2.59.20.7
5th (10) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 3.00.41.1
6th (5) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Ford) 3.00.47.9
7th (21) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara) 3.00.57.4
8th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot) 3.02.11.0
9th (24) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Ford) 3.02.31.6
10th (18) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (Accent) 3.02.41.1
11th Kankkunen 12th Gardemeister 13th Panizzi 14th Stohl

LATEST NEWS FROM STAGE 16 MARGAM 1 - Richard Burns has retired, possibly an accident. Sebastian Loeb in the Citroen has stopped. Harri Rovanpera in the Peugeot has hydraulic problems. Austin MacHale withdrew, couldn't fix brake line at service.

The race is still on at the front with Markko Martin setting a stunningly fastest time through stage 15 Rheola.  The Estonian driver pushed his Ford Focus to the limit after getting a wake up call from the team and was 8s faster than Petter Solberg.  The down side for Ford is that Richard Burns in the Peugeot charged past Carlos Sainz into 3rd.  Martin commented at stage finish "I try very hard in there, not sure I can go any faster, but may have to".  Solberg said "I have broken something in the rear suspension, the car is running wide on corners and I am worried that I have one more stage before service".  Richard Burns "I'm happy with that, the car feels very good, I thought it would be a fast time". Sainz' reaction…."I'm surprised how fast Richard was, I make no mistakes, it went well".

News from the Junior WRC is that Gwyndaf Evans has retired the MG ZR when a rear hub sheared about 12kms into Rheola, before Walters Arena. The MG team had done some sterling work to sort out Gwyndaf's power steering before the stage and did not expect this to happen. Niall McShea is 3rd in the category, despite having lost quite a few seconds when he caught up with the struggling Austin MacHale in Resolven, and then sustained a puncture in stage 15 Rheola.  Daniel Sola still leads the Juniors and is pacing himself, well on his way to the title. Basso is 2nd.  Janni Tuohino has dropped back after suffering a puncture. Dallavilla damaged the front of his Citroen when he took a compression jump too hard and the car landed on its nose. Had 2 punctures earlier in the rally when he a hit a rock pulled out by another car. Leading class A6 overall is the Renault of Simone Jean Joseph, now with just over a minute advantage on the leading Super 1600 car of Sola. Jean Joseph incurred some road penalties changing the gearbox. Swedish driver Daniel Carlsson has retired his Puma with transmission problems. Guy Wilks is still going but well down the list just ahead of Kris Meeke.

In Group N Oscar Svedlund is now taking it easy to preserve his lead and avoid punctures. James Thompson is still 2nd despite 3rd gear problems in his Lancer.  Nik Elsmore was making a real charge this morning but broke the rear suspension and a drive shaft in his Lancer, fortunate to keep going, but now well down the list.  Down in the dumps - young Gareth Jones in his father Glyn's Subaru was stuck in a deep Resolven hole for 20 minutes - spoiled a brilliant drive from the youngster. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON