McRae takes narrow lead in Medan Rally
McRae takes narrow lead in Medan Rally
By Robert Soelistyo
PARAPAT, North Sumatra (JP): Braving the rain, a wet track and
slippery roads, Scotland's Colin McRae took a narrow overnight
lead after the first nine stages in the FIA World Rally
Championships concluded here yesterday.
After securing a narrow advantage in the first Special Stage
(SS), the Scot dropped to third after the second SS but
recaptured the lead after the fifth SS and never looked back. He
and co-driver Derek Ringer finished five seconds ahead of the
pack at the end of the ninth SS in a time of one hour and 38
seconds.
"It's not easy with grip changes all the time from wet to dry
but I'm happy with my times. There are only five seconds between
me and Tommi and that's okay," McRae said after the 13.5km Sei
Putih of the sixth SS.
Though the road surface dried during the day, it started off
very slippery after overnight heavy drizzle drenched most of
Medan. The conditions punished many of the most seasoned rally
drivers.
Kenneth Eriksson of Sweden in a 555 Subaru Imprezza was forced
to quit the race when he hit a bridge in the seventh SS and could
not restart his engine.
Carlos Sainz of Spain, driving a Ford Escort RS Cosworth, hit
the same bridge but sustained no damage. "It (the bridge) is on a
tight right hand bend and there was some water just before the
bridge. It was like driving on ice."
And Finn Tommi Makinen, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III,
suffered the same fate as he hit the bridge, went over the
parapet and damaged the suspension to loose 11 seconds. He
eventually finished second behind McRae in a time of 1:38.43.
"It's driving just about right -- no real problems. I made a
wrong tire choice in that stage, they were too soft. Maybe the
next stage will be more slippery," Makinen said.
Mitsubishi's hopes of making a clean sweep were dashed
yesterday as Richard Burns of Great Britain mirrored Eriksson's
fate -- quitting the race -- due to a lack of oil pressure.
Juha Kankkunen of Finland and co-driver Nicky Grist (GB)
finished third after clocking 1:41.06. They were ahead of Carlos
Sainz of Spain in a Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
Arief Indiarto and co-driver Maman Aruman in a Mitsubishi
Lancer Evolution III led three home favorites to place themselves
among the top 10. The other drivers are Dolly Indra Nasution and
long-time partner Farryd Sungkar, driving a Ford Escort and the
pair of Irvan Gading and Karel Harilatu on a Subaru Imprezza 555.
Arief clocked 1:49.26 while Dolly had it in 1:50.07 and Irvan
finished with a time of 1:50.21.
As today's weather is predicted to be heavy cloud and possible
rain and thunder, the second leg of the race, the third in the
world series after Swedish and Safari rallies, is expected to be
even more grueling.
Today's event will cover seven SSs with a total distance of
117.32km, around Lake Toba, the first stop of yesterday first
nine SSs.
The third and final leg will cover 12 SSs and is the longest
stretch of the event; 203.44km from here back to Medan.
Leading standings:
1. Colin McRae (Gbr) Subaru Imprezza 1hr 38mins 00secs
2. Tommi Makinen (Fin) Mitsubishi Lancer 5secs behind
3. Juha Kankkunen (Fin) Toyota Celica 3:06
4. Carlos Sainz (Spa) Ford Escort 3:29
5. Pierro Liati (Ita) Subaru Imprezza 3:30