RALLY NEWS NO.4                    Felindre-Friday 5.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Rheola
1st (2) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Peugeot) 1.04.58.1
2nd (11) Petter Solberg/Philip Mills (Subaru) 1.05.47.7
3rd (6) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford) 1.05.49.9
4th (4) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford) 1.06.03.1
5th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot) 1.06.41.3
6th (10) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 1.06.44.5
7th (5) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Ford) 1.06.56.8
8th (1) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Peugeot) 1.06.58.4
9th (21) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara) 1.07.08.6
10th (24) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Ford) 1.07.41.5
Just outside leaderboard: 11th Loix 12th Kankkunen 13th Schwarz 14th Gardemeister 15th Panizzi

Marcus Gronholm set another fastest time through the Rehola test, 6s faster than Burns with Solberg 3rd, 5s behind the Englishman.  Markko Martin was 4th fastest. Colin McRae 5th and Carlos Sainz 6th.  Gronholm commented at the service area "That was the best stage so far, yes I push, it was drier, better grip. I get car checked over but do not change anything".  Burns looked at Marcus' time and said "Stunning, I was going hard in there".     Colin McRae related "Pushing just about as hard as we can, the times are good, but we must see what happens to the cars in front. The car is working well".  His Ford team mate Carlos Sainz echoed those sentiments "We will see tomorrow".  Markko Martin's co driver Michael Park told us "We were too slow in Rheola, Markko kept telling himself to drive harder, that the grip was there, but it didn't work for him".  Thomas Radstrom in the Citroen said "We did our best run so far, the car is more driveable, but the engineers must keep working in this direction, perhaps they will change the whole transmission. The car is trying to pull off the road".  Tommi Makinen said "We have no problems, but maybe a stiffer damper and harder compound tyres would have been better, the stage was different from this morning, good grip". 

Kenneth Eriksson in the Skoda has had more brake and differential problems.  Mikko Hirvonen has retired the 22 Motorsport Subaru in service, a damaged spark plug would indicate piston trouble in number 3 cylinder. Mark Blundell in the MG has stopped with mechanical trouble, his MG team mate Tony Jardine stopped to see if he could help, but to no avail. David Higgins in the Barretts Subaru felt that he had put too many cuts in his Pirelli tyres and lost a little bit of time, David is 24th overall.  Austin MacHale is 25th. The Dubliner has had some brake problems in stage 4 with his Corolla WRC.   Petter Solberg reported a good run through stage 5 - co driver Phil Mills saying "Very fast, but poodled through the mud in Walters Arena" In the Junior WRC category Tuohino still leads from the similar Saxo of Dallavilla. Niall McShea holds on to 3rd place, just a few seconds between the three. Sola is 4th, Gwyndaf Evans 5th in the MG ZR. 
In Group N Svedlund is still in front, Touring Car Champion James Thompson was 2nd and we are still waiting for his times. James commented earlier that he was driving at his own pace and surprised to be so well up the list.  More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON