McRae third after opening GB stage

Richard Burns and Colin McRae went head-to-head on the opening super-special stage of the Network Q Rally of Great Britain.

The duo were effectively racing around a 1.5mile circuit in Cardiff's dockland area, and it was McRae who came out on top by two seconds.

His performance though was only good enough for third place behind two of the rising stars of world rallying.

Estonia's Markko Martin, who drives the third Ford entry, was quickest by 0.6seconds from Petter Solberg of Norway in a Subaru.

Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest, followed by Harri Rovanpera, Marcus Gronholm, Tommi Makinen, then Burns.

Valentino Rossi, the MotoGP world champion who is competing in his first event at this level, produced a highly creditable display, finishing just nine seconds off the pace.

But the 23-year-old Italian will face an entirely different proposition on Friday when the rally starts in earnest by venturing into the Welsh forests.