Rallying: Burns to fore as McRae pulls out

Tuesday 08 June 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

COLIN McRAE was forced to withdraw from the Acropolis Rally yesterday because of a faulty gear box, allowing Richard Burns to regain the overall lead.

The Scottish former world champion, driving a Ford Focus, finished the 15th special stage three minutes ahead of Tommi Makinen of Finland, but was unable to start the 16th stage when his gears jammed.

Burns, penalised 30 seconds for returning to the garage too late yesterday, fared better than his Finnish team-mate, Juha Kankkunen, as the four-times world champion, who won the Argentinian Rally last month, retired with a broken axle on the 11th special stage.

The Englishman led for most of the race yesterday before deliberately taking a penalty so he would not have to lead off. Burns then regained the lead in the afternoon and he ended the second day out with a 17.2sec cushion over Spain's Carlos Sainz and 35sec ahead of Makinen.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in