Motorsport: Dawn scare for Burns

Richard Burns suffered a scare as he resumed his World Championship quest at the Network Q Rally of Great Britain this morning.

Burns, who needs to finish in the top four tomorrow to snatch the title from Colin McRae, was briefly delayed when his Subaru refused to start after the overnight halt in a damp Cardiff.

The 30-year-old, who is lying second, was forced to push the car out of parc ferme with co-driver Robert Reid before they could replace the spark plugs and make the 45-minute trip to the service area in Swansea.

"Not a pleasant start to the morning and certainly not the way I planned it," said Burns, who resumes the rally just over 36 seconds adrift of Peugeot’s outgoing champion Marcus Gronholm.

"When we got into the car at parc ferme the engine wouldn’t start so Robert and I had to push the car through the time control.

"We took a spark plug out and saw that it was damp. Fortunately we had a kit of parts in the car and a routine to cope with this sort of situation so we changed all the spark plugs and the car started."