Monte Carlo Rally: McRae runs into technical problems

Colin McRae's hopes of becoming the first British winner of the Monte Carlo Rally for 33 years are in tatters after his Ford Focus hit technical problems.

McRae started the final day 3.5 seconds ahead but ran into problems around 12 miles into the opening special stage in the French Alps.

McRae was forced to stop because of a throttle problem and, although he got the car going again, then suffered an engine problem.

The 32-year-old Scot, who is also reported to have spun on the 19.6-mile stage, is trying to fix the mechanical glitch on the roadside.

But he had already lost a huge amount of time to Mitsubishi's Finnish driver Tommi Makinen, who started the day in second place.

McRae managed to fix the electrical problem with his throttle and get the car to the end of the stage but he lost more than 13 minutes to plummet down the leaderboard.

The Monaco-based driver is now 13 minutes 12 seconds adrift - an impossible time to make-up in the three remaining stages.

The opening stage was not a happy one for the McRae family with his younger brother Alister losing around three minutes in his Hyundai and dropping out of the top six as a result.

Makinen, who has won the event for the past two years, now leads the season's opening rally by almost 69 seconds from Spain's Carlos Sainz in the Ford.

Frenchman Francois Delecour snatched third overall in his Focus from the Skoda of Germany's Armin Schwarz, although he is well over two minutes adrift of Makinen.