Rallying: McRae's Safari is shortlived

Rallying

COLIN McRAE'S world championship hopes suffered a major setback yesterday when mechanical problems forced both the Scot and the world champion, Tommi Makinen, out of the Safari Rally.

That enabled Richard Burns, in a Mitsubishi Lancer, to take the lead with a 6min 1sec advantage over the fast improving Ari Vatanen in a Ford Escort.

McRae had moved into second position, ahead of Burns, on the eighth timed section of the event, but the engine of his Subaru Impreza started overheating two stages later. McRae had steam pumping out of the bonnet and his engineers were unable to identify the problem, making retirement inevitable.

Piero Liatti, McRae's team-mate, was struck by an identical problem on the same stage and also had to pull out.