After Special Stage 21...

Although Colin McRae's last appearance in Subaru livery ended in disappointment with a broken piston two stages from the end of the second leg of the Network Q Rally, his younger brother Alister survives to tackle the third and last leg in South Wales on Tuesday morning. He has distinguished himself already in his first international outing with the Subaru team, proving he can stay with the best in a competitive car and second place was just reward.

Colin McRae's departure when he was in the lead brought an end to what has been one of the worst ever seasons for he has been plagued by misfortune for much of the year. And although he was only rallying for pride he nevertheless gave the hundreds of thousands of spectators a real treat as he swept through the chilly, dank Welsh forest.

Behind him Richard Burns had pursued him relentlessly, even taking the lead briefly after a trio of fastest times as he tried desperately to keep the team's hopes of the manufacturers's prize alive and give himself the biggest prize of all-to win the home event in the World Rally Championship.

The half hour delay to proceedings in the afternoon was caused by over enthusiasm of the masses who had gathered many hours before the first cars arrived, their ranks swelled by many late arrivals who were fortunate to see all but a couple of notable retirements.

Ari Vatanen was the first to go-his Subaru failing to restart after a couple of spins early on but he was never a serious contender after a sluggish first day. Kenneth Eriksson was next - he put the new Hyundai coupe kit car into the trees - while the rest of the 'names' continued generally in orderly fashion.

Carlos Sainz lost a minute towards the end of the day with a high speed excursion down an escape road on the Sweet Lamb stage which should not dent his chances of taking the World title again on Tuesday in a Toyota squad which has had an almost trouble free run so far with France's Didier Auriol providing a worthy partner to the Spaniard.

The Ford duo of Juha Kankkunen and Bruno Thiry have also had no major problems - but they both lost ground initially to the pace setters on the final appearance of any Ford carrying the Escort name - next year Colin McRae will be the man in charge as Ford place their faith in the new Focus car which is due to appear on the Monte Carlo Rally in January. Just to prove a point Kankkunen put in a charge on the last stage to move into third spot.

In the battle for honours in Formula II the three Finnish stars Laukkenen, Gardemeister and Kytolehto played swap around for much of the day until the latter lost a minute and dropped to third but the trio are light years ahead of the rest.

Austria"s Manfred Stohl continued to set the pace in Group N and starts on Tuesday with a 33 second advantage over David Higgins but the Oman driver Hamed-al-Wahaibi suffered a delay which has dropped him two minutes off the category pace and his third position is under strong threat from the leading British driver Jeremy Easson.

British champion Martin Rowe from the Isle of Man retired after making a mistake in mid morning when he struck a boulder and damaged the suspension of his Renault Megane while the veteran Midlander Vince Whetton put in a great charge which lifted the current home Group N champion from 92nd to 34th and the Shropshire farmer Roger Davies ended the day by leading the Ford contingent in the same category.

1998 Network Q Rally of Great Britain