Colin McRae's 12th victory on a world championship rally - his fourth this season - was one of his finest, for the pressure was unrelenting and defeat was unthinkable. Only a win would give him any chance of becoming champion and yet, while he led for most of the distance, favourable road conditions allowed both his championship rivals, Carlos Sainz and Tommi Makinen, to get within striking distance.
McRae struggled for grip on most of the special stages and thereby swept gravel from the road surface for his rivals. Conditions were so bad that he voluntarily handed the lead to Sainz at the end of the second leg, as the rules state that the leader must go first.
His chances of winning improved dramatically when Saintz broke his Ford's engine early yesterday morning, but then Makinen launched a desperate assault that sliced McRae's advantage from 51 seconds overnight to just 13 seconds with a single 19 mile special stage remaining.
McRae had made a series of minor errors that all but played into Makinen's hands: he had slowed down too much after passing Sainz, then spun in a water crossing and overshot the junction. "This morning it didn't look too bad," he said. "After we passed Sainz, it was a relief and a bit of a disappointment, because I was looking forward to the fight, but then Makinen came back and it was a bit close for comfort. "The worst bit wasn't the stage, it was the nine minutes while we waited for Tommi's time," he added. Finishing sixth on the RAC Rally and gaining a single point will confirm Makinen as champion, even if McRae wins, but Makinen's team Mitsubishi, was prepared to gamble everything on winning in Australia rather than give McRae a glimmer of a chance in Britain. Bad weather makes the RAC notoriously unpredictable and, whereas Makinen has a poor track record, McRae is seeking his third successive win. He has set the pace on each of his last four attempts and no one seriously supposes that he can beaten in a straight fight. "We've got it all to gain and Tommi's got it all to lose. I'm just going to try and do my best to win the RAC," McRae declared.
