Rally Britain 2000
Leg Two
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| Richard Burns charging on leg 2. (Photo by SWRT) |
Richard Burns continued his charge on the second leg, moving to third position already on the first stage of the day, SS 9. On stage 10 McRae was fastest, with Burns close behind. Marcus Gronholm was still in second place, but slowly losing time to Burns and McRae, not needing to push as he only has to finish in the top 5.
Tommi Makinen overtook Carlos Sainz in 5th position on SS 9, but on the following stage lost some time after hitting a tree, and Sainz regained the position. Damages to Makinen's car weren't serious, though, and after SS 11 Makinen was once again in front of the Spaniard.
McRae was fastest also on SS 11. Burns, only a second slower, was still 56 secs behind the leader. Gronholm's margin to Burns shrunk to 11 seconds. On SS 12 McRae went off rolling the car, and the leader of the rally was suddenly out. Mcrae later said that the stage was so muddy and slippery that the organizers shouldn't have run it at all. Gronholm took the lead, but Burns, fastest on the stage, was only three seconds behind.
On stage 13 Burns moved into the lead, and the championship title became a question whether Gronholm would have any problems on the remaining stages. The final stage of the day was the short Cardiff super special, which again didn't bring major changes to the leaderboard. Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz kept on dicing for positions all through the day, Sainz starts the final leg in third place, just 0.3 secs in front of Makinen. Juha Kankkunen is 5th, 14 secs behind Makinen.
Situation after stage 14 of 17:
1. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru - 2.51.41,0
2. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot +19,9
3. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +1.19.9
4. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi +1.20.2
5. Juha Kankkunen (FIN) Subaru +1.34,7
6. Francois Delecour (FRA) +1.47,4
7. Gilles Panizzi (FRA) Peugeot +2.19,7
8. Markko Märtin (EST) Toyota +2.46,5
9. Didier Auriol (FRA) Seat +3.31.7
10. Harri Rovanperä (FIN) Seat +4.06,9
