McRae confident of closing gap

13 April 2012

Colin McRae intends making the most of the opportunity he has been given to close the gap on World Championship leader Tommi Makinen in the Cyprus Rally.  

The Finn crashed out of the sixth round in the series on the opening day to allow his rivals a chance of eating into his advantage.

McRae, bidding to repeat his title success of 1995, trails four-time former champion Makinen by 17 points.

But he sees this event and the next in Greece as being a critical point of his battle to get back into the reckoning.

A victory to follow up his success in Argentina last month would be ideal, and the Scot believes that is a realistic target after a promising first leg in sweltering conditions on the Mediterranean holiday island.

Although he ended day one only fourth, behind world champion Marcus Gronholm, British rival Richard Burns and even another of his Ford colleagues Francois Delecour, McRae is confident of savouring glory again.

"We're in the ideal place," said McRae, whose father Jimmy won this rally in 1983, long before its elevation to World Championship status which occurred only last year.

"Fourth position on the road means we get better conditions than those in front and our time gap of 14.7 seconds to the leader is very small.

"With Tommi's retirement we have a great chance to close up on him here and I'm looking for maximum points."

But McRae knows he must not fall foul of the blistering heat which proved the single most troublesome aspect on an arduous opening day that accounted for almost one third of the 76 starters.

"Conditions were very much as we expected them," said the Monaco-based 32-year-old.

"Physically, this is the toughest rally in the championship and if you stray off the ideal driving line you simply hand seconds to your rivals."

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