McRae unstoppable

COLIN McRae has busted this year's world rally championship wide open with his third win in row at the Acropolis Rally in Greece.

The Scot now shares the lead in the drivers' championship with Tommi Makinen and is set to be the first driver to win four rallies in a row as the teams head to Kenya.

"The championship fight is obviously very much alive now," McRae said.

"We're only at the halfway point, but it's looking good for us...the car is strong and another win in Kenya is more than a possibility." McRae's season had looked all but over when he had no points to his name after the first four rounds, but he has now equalled Juha Kankkunen and teammate Carlos Sainz as the drivers with the most rally victories, as well as becoming the only driver to win the Acropolis Rally four times.

Subaru's second nominated points scorer Petter Solberg took second spot on the podium, 49 seconds behind McRae. The young Norwegian was leading the rally early on the first day after setting the fastest time on stage two, but yielded to McRae on stage six.

"I'm delighted to get on the podium for the first time, especially on such a hard event as the Acropolis," Solberg said.

"We've had so much bad luck this year that I nearly cried with relief when I came out of the last stage." Third place went to Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera but the team failed to pick up any manufacturers' points, as Marcus Gronholm and Didier Auriol were the drivers nominated to score for this round.

Makinen held off a charging Francois Delecour to finish fourth for Mitsubishi, but picked up manufacturers' points for third place courtesy of Rovanpera's status as Peugeot's third driver. Ford's Delecour was fifth despite competing with a sprained wrist, but he was also not listed to score points for his manufacturer.

Philippe Bugalski finished sixth in Citroen's first gravel event with its new Xsara world rally car. The Xsara has already demonstrated its strength on tarmac and has now proven its competitiveness on gravel, as the Frenchman's stage times hovered around the tenth fastest mark for the entire event.

Sainz and Subaru's main hope Richard Burns were the top names not to finish the rally. Sainz was on track to keep his consistent points scoring record intact, running a close second to McRae as they headed into the final stage. But luck once again deserted the Spaniard as his Ford Focus dropped onto three cylinders and eventually stopped eight kilometres into the stage.

Burns was in third when he crashed his Impreza on stage 15, after braking too late for a second gear corner and sliding down a bank on the outside of the bend. However, he managed to keep going and was sitting in seventh place until a drive shaft let go on stage 19, forcing him to retire.

Makinen and McRae are equal at the top of the drivers' standings with 30 points, while Sainz's failure to add to his tally of 26 points sees him fall to third. Delecour's fifth place has him move into sixth at the expense of Auriol, while Solberg has burst into the top ten in eighth position after his points haul for finishing second.

Ford has extended its lead in the manufacturers' championship to seven points over Mitsubishi, while Subaru have moved further ahead of Peugeot, who failed to score any points for the third rally in a row. Skoda pushed in front of Hyundai courtesy of three points from Armin Schwarz and one point from Bruno Thiry.

RACE RESULTS
1 Colin McRae (Ford) 4hr19:01.9
2 P Solberg (Subaru) +0.49
3 H Rovanpera (Peugeot) +1:35.7
4 T Makinen (Mitsubishi) +2:15.3
5 F Delecour (Ford) +2:35.4
6 P Bugalski (Citroen) +4:00.2
7 A Schwarz (Skoda) +5:56.7
8 Simon Jean-Joseph (Peugeot) +7:27.1
9 Freddy Loix (Mitsubishi) +8:00.9
10 B Thiry (Skoda) +8:35.7 DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
=1 Makinen (FIN) 30
=1 McRae (GB) 30
3 Sainz (ESP) 26
4 Burns (GB) 15
5 Rovanpera (FIN) 14
6 Delecour (FRA) 11
7 Auriol (FRA) 10
8 Solberg (NOR) 9
9 Loix (BEL) 7
=10 T Radstrom (SWE) 6
=10 G Panizzi (FRA) 6 MANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Ford 60
2 Mitsubishi 53
3 Subaru 28
4 Peugeot 20
5 Skoda 11
6 Hyundai 10 Next round: Safari Rally, July 19-22