RALLY NEWS NO.6                    Felindre-Saturday  10.30am

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 Resolven
1st (2) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Peugeot) 1.36.03.1
2nd (6) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford) 1.37.10.8
3rd (11) Petter Solberg/Philip Mills (Subaru) 1.37.19.1
4th (4) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford) 1.37.23.3
5th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot) 1.37.59.9
6th (1) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Peugeot) 1.38.09.7
7th (10) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 1.38.29.6
8th (5) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Ford) 1.38.37.2
9th (21) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara) 1.39.06.4
10th (24) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Ford) 1.39.43.1
Just outside leaderboard: 11th Loix 12th Gardemeister 13th Panizzi 14th Kankkunen 15th Paasonen

It was Peugeot 1-2-3 at the top of the time sheets for stage 8, Resolven, at 32.8 miles the longest in the rally.  Gronholm's time was 28m56.5s. Burns was 5s slower, Rovanpera approximately 7 back and then Sainz 3 back. Markko Martin plus 2 and Solberg a further 11 from Martin. Colin McRae was over half a minute back on the fastest time.  The only driver from the top 15 who had any sort of major problem was Armin Schwarz. The back of his Hyundai went on fire and he was forced to stop mid stage, Armin had not had an accident but there was some damage to the rear of the car. The extinguishers could not put the blaze out and Armin waved down Juha Kankkunen, who hadn't much option really but to stop. Kankkunen was soon on his way, but couldn't quite settle after the incident. Schwarz is now 26th o/a having lost approx. 10 minutes.  We hear unconfirmed reports that Pykalisto, although he finished stage 8, may have stopped on the road section with rumoured head gasket problems.

Following his fastest time Gronholm commented "Normal driving, it was good, I wanted to start in same way as yesterday. I go my own speed. There is no luck, not like some British say".  Tommi Makinen commented "It is not so good behind Colin McRae, he is cutting corners and dragging stuff on to road. One rock got stuck under sump guard and we spin".  Petter Solberg "Clean run, nothing to report".  Harri Rovanpera, and indeed some other of the top drivers, had a disturbing incident when mindless spectators were throwing what appears to be grease or margarine at the cars. Harri commented "I just do not know what these people are thinking". Michael Park commented on his driver Markko Martin's run "No mistakes, we adjusted some pace notes for the next run through tomorrow, we made the right choice of Pirellis (K)".  Martin moved from 3rd to 2nd place after that stage 8. 

Mark Higgins said "Good run, we're 6th on the road and it's much cleaner. It is so fast, some 6th gear corners we think this could be a big moment. But I'm happy to be on the pace, it's mega stuff".   Further down the order, Svedlund leads gpN by just under a minute from James Thompson with Elsmore 3rd. Cox 4th. Sola has moved back into the lead of the Junior WRC with the similar Saxo of Tuohino 2nd, Baldicci is now 3rd. Basso in the Fiat 4th, McShea in Corsa 5th and Gwyndaf Evans in the MG dropped to 6th. In general classification David Higgins in the Barretts Subaru has moved up to 21st. Austin MacHale is 23rd. Alistair Ginley lost some time in stage 6 when his lights were all wrong but he is holding 24th.  More news later. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON