Thirteen spectators, including two children, were injured after being struck by a car during the Network Q Rally of Great Britain today. They sustained their injuries when the Ford Focus of Spain's two-time world champion Carlos Sainz went off the road into a spectator area during the 11th special stage of the rally in the Brechfa Forest region of south Wales this afternoon.
Two air ambulances were immediately deployed to ferry the injured to West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen. The children, aged 12 and 14, were admitted with lower limb injuries while two adults have head and back injuries respectively, but none of them are thought to be life threatening. Nine people had minor injuries and will be discharged from hospital later this evening.
Rally organisers immediately scrapped the stage and cancelled the next one, which was also scheduled to take place nearby. However, Saturday night's super-special stage in Cardiff was later given the go-ahead and the rally is due to finish on Sunday afternoon as scheduled.
Sainz, clearly upset by the events, revealed tonight that he went straight on at a corner around eight miles into the 18.53mile stage on muddy, forest tracks and hit a car before then hitting the group of people in his Ford Focus. The 39-year-old Spaniard, who still had an outside chance of winning the world title, had finished the stage but was then withdrawn from the rest of the rally by his team who saw title hope Colin McRae spectacularly crash out yesterday.
Meanwhile, Richard Burns has vowed to become England's first World Rally champion tomorrow. The 30-year-old has just four more special stages - totalling little over 67 miles - of the Network Q Rally of Great Britain to negotiate to snatch the title. Burns will start the final day lying in a comfortable second spot knowing he only needs a top four finish to claim the drivers' crown from rival Colin McRae. The Reading-born Burns and co-driver Robert Reid are 95 seconds adrift of outgoing champion Marcus Gronholm and look good for the title.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
