McRae with much to do

Citroen’s Colin McRae has to make up almost a minute today as he bids to reel in Cyprus Rally leader Marcus Gronholm.

Briton McRae finished yesterday’s opening day in sixth place, nearly 56 seconds behind defending champion Gronholm in the Peugeot.

The Swede had waited for Finnish team-mate Harri Rovanpera to hit trouble before snatching the lead on the fourth and final stage of the day.

And despite his determination to win for Citroen, McRae knows it is a tall order to close such a large gap on a driver of Gronholm’s ability.

“We’re still working on the car to get a set-up I’m happy with,” admitted McRae.

“There’s more speed to come for sure, but you’ve got to be exceptionally quick to make up 50 seconds.”

Although Gronholm ended the first day as the leader he was not totally satisfied.

“It was not marvellous, but okay,” admitted Gronholm.

“We had a small problem with the rear suspension, but it was quite good.”

Gronholm set his sights on pushing again today in order to build on his slender lead of 6.8secs over Rovanpera.

Gronholm added: “Now we have to look forward and to try to do the same job. We have to go with full speed and see where we end up.”