Network Q Rally of Great Britain Reports Service

After Special Stage 16...

Following a two hour run-out from the overnight halt at Cheltenham Burns, who was robbed of victory on this event a year ago following a puncture on the last day, moved swiftly into second place behind overnight leader Colin McRae on the opening test in the Radnor forest, near Knighton.

He maintained station on the next stage but on the new 12 mile stage in Twyi, never used before, he was 18 seconds quicker than McRae and moved into the lead.

Carlos Sainz has had a troublefree morning so far and has maintained his fourth place but the two Ford entries of Kankkunen and Thiry have dropped back.

As the big names started the rally in earnest it soon became clear that the battle for honours on this final round of the FIA Wold Rally Championship would be fought out by the top four teams and by the time the superstars arrived for their second 15 min service at the Royal Welsh showground at Builth Wells the gap between the battle up front between Burns and Colin McRae and the the sixth Ford world rally car of Kankkunen had widened to almost a minute.

The first well known casualty was Ari Vatanen who was sadly off the pace in his Subaru and retired after stalling his car after he had twice spun before lunchtime. Kenneth Erikson retired the new Hyundai on the new Twyi stage SS16 while on the stage before the British Champion Martin Rowe departed the fray leaving Renault with only one Megane.

The Scottish borders man Dominic Buckley, who brief claim to fame was third on the first stage at Cheltenham, also retired on the 10 mile Myherin test.

Our roving reporter, out in the Welsh forests, was surrounded by no less than four helicopters as he took his place in the Esgair Dafydd stage, on the fourth corner in to be precise, and hob nobbed with David Richards, Andrew Cowan and men from Renault and Toyota for a while.

In the battle for F2 honours Vauxhall still hold sway but Jarno Kytolehto is under considerable pressure from his Finnish rival Toni Gardemeister, the gap being a mere six seconds after 16 stages. The third Finn Tapio Laukkenen retains station in third spot 20 seconds off the pace but the Austrian Raimund Baumschlager is up to fourth following the departure of Martin Rowe.

The other leading Austrian Manfred Stohl was beginning to make Group N his private domain in his Mitsubishi Lancer. He extended an overnight lead of 21 seconds over Jeremy Easson to 61 secs with the new second placeman being David Higgins in his Subaru Impreza. Higgins charge dropped the Middle East's Hamed-al-Wahaibi to third while Easson was 39 secs off the class leader and in a fairly secure fourth as the next rival was nearly a minute adrift.

The Welsh stages have attracted huge crowds both at the stages and at the only service area at Builth Wells where the cars make four trips. Later today the survivors face a 15 mile trip through the Sweet Lamb complex, a loop through a natural bowl three miles from the start will be floodlit and will include a manmade jump.