Cyprus Rally 2000
On the morning stages of the second leg of Cyprus Rally Carlos Sainz continued his strong performance leading the rally by a minute and 20 secs. Behind him, Richard Burns moved into second place in front of Francois Delecour. Tommi Makinen passed Toni Gardemeister in 6th place. Makinen's team-mate Freddy Loix surprised everyone by winning stage 13. He moved to 8th place, but already more than 8 minutes behind the leader.
Stage 14 was an eventful one. Richard Burns broke the front left strut and dropped from 2nd to 4th. Delecour had brake problems and McRae, who won the stage, rose to second place. McRae was 40 secs faster than Sainz, even though the Spaniard reported no problems, so it seemed that team orders had come into play. Toni Gardemeister crashed out of the race from 7th position on SS 14.
Burns was fastest on stage 15, but he was still half a minute behind McRae. On the remaining three stages of the day McRae caught Sainz only by a few seconds and Sainz' overnight lead was still more than a minute. Burns had technical problems again on SS 17, the final stage of the day. He lost the four wheel drive on the Subaru and finished the stage a minute slower than stage winner Sainz. Burns dropped back to 4th place. Markko Martin continued in 5th place although Tommi Makinen was catching the Estonian privateer slowly.
Situation after stage 17 of 23:
1. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford - 4.04.58,6
2. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford +1.04,6
3. Francois Delecour (FRA) Peugeot +2.01,2
4. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +2.46,5
5. Markko Märtin (EST) Toyota +3.51,2
6. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi +4.05,7
7. Juha Kankkunen (FIN) Subaru +7.23,8
8. Freddy Loix (BEL) Mitsubishi +8.34,8
9. Toshihiro Arai (JPN) Subaru +9.05,5
