Network Q Rally of Great Britain Reports Service

After Special Stage 13...

Murmurs of discontent among several of the top rally teams circulated at rally headquarters in Cheltenham this evening following the unfortunate incident which caused Tommi Makinen to lose his chance of winning the World Rally Championship for the third year in a row. Makinen lost the offside rear wheel after sliding off course on a patch of oil at the Vauxhall test track in Bedfordshire, north of London.

According to reports the patch of oil was dropped by one of the crews taking part in the preceding event for historic cars but had not been removed before the main field arrived.

One team manager said "There was a gap of one and a half hours but it appears nobody attempted to get rid of the oil".

Moreover the very substantial concrete blocks, used as course markers - one of which Makinen hit - were not in place when the recce took place and therefore did not appear in the pace notes of the crews.

Makinen was on the main road when he was stopped by a motor cycle police patrolman from Bedfordshire police who advised the man from Finland he would not be allowed to continue with his car in a dangerous condition.

As crews returned to Cheltenham at the end of the 13 stage Sunday run, comprising a mere 44 miles of action in what had been a 12 hour day, less than half a minute separated the works teams.

The main problem everyone encountered was tyre choice which accounted for the topsy turvy switcharound of positions. Colin McRae set off like a scalded cat and was fastest on the first six tests, opening up a 20 second lead. However, he had a puncture and later banged a wheel just after lunchtime, allowing Didier Auriol to claw back most of that lead to move alongside team mate and world champion designate Carlos Sainz.

 Alister McRae put in a burst at Donington Park under the floodlights to split the Toyota men but the team suffered a blow when Marcus Gronhom, in the third car, went out when the car caught fire on Stage 11.

In the Formula 2 battle Vauxhall continue to head the field with a trio of Finnish drivers leading the way. Jarmo Kytolehto (Vauxhall) led Toni Gardemeister (SEAT) by 15 seconds with Tapio Laukkenen's Renault Megane third a further five seconds behind. Englishmen Neil Wearden and Martin Rowe (the British Champion) were fourth and fifth.

Austria's Manfred Stohl has taken the lead in Group N in his Mitsubishi Lancer but Jeremy Easson (Mitsubishi Lancer) is only 11 seconds behind and the Oman driver Hamed-al-Wahalbi has dropped to third 28 seconds off the lead. David Higgins (Subaru Impreza) is fourth, followed by Gilles Panzzi from France and Toshihiro Arai from Japan.

But it will be a different tale on Monday when the rally really begins in the mid-Wales forests around dawn.