Motorsport: World rally champion holds slender lead

REIGNING world rally champion, Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot WRC), holds a slender five-second lead over the Subaru WRC of Richard Burns heading into today’s second leg of the Cyprus Rally.

Early leader, Petter Solberg (Subaru WRC) lost power steering on the second stage and then retired on the day’s final stage when his Subaru caught fire.

Championship leader, Tommi Makinen is also out, his Mitsubishi slid off the road on the fourth stage and another major casualty was that of Harri Rovanpera, his Peugeot dropped out with suspension failure.

In the intense heat, Gronholm, Francois Delecour and Solberg each set two fastest times during yesterday’s six stages. Delecour even went off into a field on stage three, Simou, although he lost little time, the gear lever of his Ford Focus WRC snapped off.

Nevertheless, he’s in third place, some six seconds behind Burns, with Colin McRae, Freddy Loix and Carlos Sainz next on the leaderboard. Earlier in the day, McRae lost a few seconds when his Ford Focus stalled. Toshiro Arai (Subaru), Didier Auriol (Peugeot), Alister McRae (Hyundai) and Armin Schwarz (Skoda) filled out the remaining places in the overnight top ten. Today’s second leg consists of eight stages. Irish co-driver, Chris Patterson and his driver, Greek John Papadimitriou retired their Peugeot WRC with mechanical problems on the third stage.

Cyprus Rally (Day 1):

1. M. Gronholm (Peugeot WRC) 2H. 00M. 23.2S.

2. R. Burns (Subaru WRC) 2H. 00M. 28.9S.

3. F. Delecour (Ford Focus WRC) 2H. 00M. 34.6S.

4. C. McRae (Ford Focus WRC) 2H. 00M. 37.9S.

5. F. Loix (Mitsubishi) 2H. 01M. 35.3S.

6. C. Sainz (Ford Focus WRC) 2H. 01M. 48.9S.