McRae off the pace

Colin McRae’s hopes of ending his Ford career with a fourth Network Q Rally of Great Britain victory suffered a blow when the event began in earnest today.

The Scot, who recorded the third-fastest time on last night’s opening super-special stage in Cardiff, lost a minute to his main rivals as soon as the real action began.

Today’s opening test at Brechfa in the Welsh forests was over 13 miles and McRae, who has crashed out of his home event in each of the last three years, went off the road but was able to continue.

Marcus Gronholm clocked the fastest time by going 0.5sec quicker than his Peugeot team-mate and the man he has deposed as world champion this year, Richard Burns.

The duo had more than 11 seconds to spare over the remainder and soared to the top of the overall standings, the Finn two seconds clear of his English colleague.

Estonia’s Markko Martin, the leader overnight, was third ahead of fellow Ford driver Carlos Sainz who, like Citroen-bound McRae, could be making his last appearance for the team.