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McRae leads Safari Rally

Scotland's Colin McRae is on course to score his second successive World Rally Championship victory after opening a commanding lead in the penultimate leg of the Safari Rally on Saturday. The Ford driver moved to the head of the field after the opening stage when overnight leader Finn Tommi Makinen hit trouble with his Subaru suffering a broken shock absorber.

McRae holds a lead of almost two-and-a-half minutes over Peugeot's Finn Harri Rovanpera and will win the Kenyan-based event for a third time if he negotiates three stages on Sunday's final leg. It will also be his second successive victory after McRae won for the first time this season in Greece last month.

Makinen's charge was ended on the fourth stage of the leg, 'Kerrerie', when he suffered front-left suspension damage, after the problem on the opening test, 'Kedong-Ngema', had dropped him to sixth. Estonian Markko Martin is now third overall for Ford behind Rovanpera with Swede Thomas Radstrom moving up to fourth on Citroen's debut in the event.

Briton Richard Burns, the reigning world champion, set the pace on third stage of the day, 'Kedong-Ntulele', to move to fifth but he was forced to retire his Peugeot yards from the service area after the next test. Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, of Citroen, set two best stage times to move up to fifth and Peugeot's Gilles Panizzi is now sixth after posting one fastest stage time during the leg.

The second stage of the day, 'Nailongilok', had to be cancelled for safety reasons after the spotter helicopters were left grounded because of low cloud.

Filed by Shane Murray

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