McRae looking for repeat after claiming third
Colin McRae has sets his sights on a repeat performance after finishing a surprising third on the first day of Rally Australia.
McRae put his Skoda into third behind the Subaru of Petter Solberg and Citroen’s Francois Duval after world champion Sebastien Loeb crashed out.
McRae is just 1.4 seconds behind Duval after the Frenchman’s team-mate and fellow countryman Loeb made his exit while leading the event.
Solberg’s overall lead was based on three stages wins but he was trailing Loeb after stage eight in the forests around Perth.
Loeb won both stages seven and eight before he crashed out of the event on stage nine when he damaged his Citroen beyond repair.
Duval kept up Citroen’s bid for victory by finishing the day in second, with McRae in third and Mitsubishi’s Harri Rovanpera 15.5 seconds behind.
McRae had a slow start to the event, but quickly worked his way up the order thanks to his road position which allowed him to start well down the running order after most of the gravel had been swept away by the earlier starters.
McRae was pleased after taking advantage of the harder base surface of the road to force his way into the top three.
“Today has gone completely to plan,” claimed McRae.
“I drove a bit too slowly on the opening stage but since then I’ve been able to push. The road position has obviously helped but the car has been fine too. If we can do the same tomorrow then who knows what sort of result is possible.”
McRae’s fine opening day also pleased his team boss Martin Muehlmeier who looked to the Briton to finish what had been a hard season for the team on a high.
“Colin has done exactly what we asked of him today which was to use his start position to full advantage and push hard,” he said.
“He now has another perfect start position for tomorrow when the order is reversed and I hope he can maintain this result.”
