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| July 14, 2002 | Sunday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1423 |
McRae snatches Safari Rally lead
NAIROBI (Kenya), July 13 Briton Colin McRae moved into the lead of the Safari Rally Saturday after rival Finn Tommi Makinen ran into trouble on the opening stage of the day.
Makinen held a 16.1-second lead overnight but he damaged the shock absorbers of his Subaru on the the first stage of the leg, the 73.93-kilometre ‘Kedong-Ngema’ test, and lost eight minutes.
With Makinen dropping down to sixth, Ford’s McRae now holds a lead of almost three-and-a-half minutes over Peugeot’s Finn Harri Rovanpera.
McRae was unhappy after Makinen failed to move over in his ailing Subaru, claiming he lost time as he trailed the Finn for 20 kilometres of the test.
“We were on Tommi’s bumper and showered with dust and rocks for about 20 kilometres,” said McRae. “It was very frustrating sitting behind. The dust cleared in the damper stretches but it was awful in the dry areas.”
“There was a problem with the radio, and I didn’t hear anything, and I’m sorry to Colin for that.”
The second stage of the day, ‘Nailongilok’, was cancelled due to low cloud cover which prevented the spotter helicopters from taking to the sky. As a result the third stage was delayed by 20 minutes.
Young Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, who lies ninth for Citroen, set the pace on the opening stage as he closed the gap on reigning world champion Richard Burns. Spain’s Carlos Sainz was second in his Ford, 10 seconds slower.
Peugeot’s Burns hit back by setting the best time on the third stage, ‘Kedong-Ntulele’ with a time 16 seconds quicker than McRae as he held on to eighth overall.
The drivers face a further two stages to complete the penultimate leg of the event before tackling three final tests Sunday.
Leading times
1. Colin McRae (Britain) Ford Leading time of four hours, 22 minutes and 17.4 seconds 2. Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Peugeot + 3:28.2 3. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Ford + 4:08.9 4. Kenneth Eriksson (Sweden) Skoda + 6:58.2 5. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford + 8:31.0 6. Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru + 10:49.5 7. Thomas Radstrom (Sweden) Citroen + 13:18.5 8. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot + 15:40.1 9. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen + 19:11.7 10. Juha Kankkunen (Finland) Hyundai + 33:20.3—Reuters
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