Motorsport: McRae forced to retire from Portugal rally

Colin McRae's miserable start to the 2001 World Championship continued when he was forced to retire from the Rally of Portugal.

The Scot failed to score points in the first two events of the campaign.

And he was stopped one kilometre from the end of stage eight at Amarante with a turbo-charger problem in his Ford Focus.

McRae, world champion in 1995, had earlier described conditions on the rally as "the worst I've ever seen by far" with recent torrential rain having left the muddy stages extremely treacherous.

It meant stages six and seven, which had already been negotiated once, were cancelled and the event was running an hour behind schedule.

Richard Burns, also seeking his first point of the campaign, was left to uphold British pride in his Subaru after the exit of McRae. After stage nine he was in fifth place, just under a minute behind leader Tommi Makinen's Mitsubishi.

Second and third were Harri Rovanpera (Peugeot) and Carlos Sainz (Ford), which meant the trio who are currently joint top of the drivers' standings occupy the first three positions.