McRae ready for Dakar test

Colin McRae will cram three days work into one flat-out blast through the African desert today as he looks to build on a fine start to the Dakar Rally.

McRae – the former World Rally champion who is making his debut on the event - will tackle a mammoth 337-kilometre stage from Er Rachidia to Ouarzazate in Morocco in his Nissan.

That is almost the equivalent of an entire World Rally event, which spreads 400km over three days of competition.

The Scotsman, who was tied in seventh place overall overnight, finished yesterday’s first full-length stage of the event in fourth place with a time of 41 minutes and 21 seconds.

“I am very satisfied with our time. The car behaved very well, even if we still have a few small things to improve,” said McRae.

That performance on the 75-kilometre stage near Tangier lifted McRae into sixth place overall, 97 seconds behind leader Stephane Peterhansel’s Mitsubishi.

The Frenchman had finished runner-up on stage four, 10 seconds behind Ari Vatanen, who scored his 50th stage win on the event to move into fourth overall.

Former World Rally champion Miki Biasion is second overall for Mitsubishi, 67secs down on Peterhansel. Gregoire de Mevius rounds out the overall top three in his BMW.

In the bike category, Fabrizio Meoni won stage four for KTM to move into second overall, but Isidre Esteve Pujol was the big winner.

The Spanish KTM rider jumped from his overnight fourth place to the top of the overall standings thanks to his second place on the stage and he leads Meoni by 14secs. Cyril Despres is third.

David Fretigne’s great start to the event counted for nothing as the Yamaha man lost the overall lead after clocking the 39th-quickest time to slip down to 23rd.

Patsy Quick, from East Sussex, dropped 21 places to 148th, over 38mins off the lead, after setting the 155th fastest time on her KTM.

Honda’s Mike Extance enjoyed a better day, the Derbyshire rider jumping up to 58th after recording the 60th quickest time on stage four.