Finn Marcus Gronholm crashed out of the Rally of Britain when leading the race after rolling his Peugeot yesterday.
The newly-crowned world champion rolled his 206 WRC on the 17.28km "Halfway" stage at the famous Deer's Leap section but was not injured.
He had been more than a minute in front of Subaru's Petter Solberg and was on course to score a record-equaling sixth win of the season to join Frenchman Didier Auriol in the record books.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Estonian Markko Martin is the new leader for Ford after bettering Solberg's time on the "Halfway" stage and is 3.5 seconds ahead of the Norwegian, with Spaniard Carlos Sainz third in a Ford.
Martin and Solberg, both 27, have yet to claim their maiden world championship victories.
Briton Richard Burns has overtaken Peugeot team mate Harri Rovanpera and the pair lie fourth and fifth, while Ford's Colin McRae is sixth.
Mitsubishi driver Jani Paasonen retired at the same place as fellow Finn Gronholm after rolling his Lancer WRC.
Hyundai withdrew German Armin Schwarz from the event after nine stages because of smoke inhalation.
Schwarz had lost 10 minutes in the "Resolfen" stage when he had to stop to put out a fire on his Accent WRC when the cars exhaust disintegrated.
"I was going down a long straight and I could smell burning," said Schwarz. "The car was filled with smoke and then there were flames inside.
"I also had to stop my team mate Juha Kankkunen to borrow his fire extinguisher because ours had run out." Kankkunen said, "Another 30 seconds and the whole car would have gone up."
Gronholm, who is chasing his sixth victory of the season in the three-day event, won four stages on Friday with Solberg taking the final stage.
World motorcycling champion Valentino Rossi's car racing debut ended quickly Friday when he crashed out of the British Rally on the first official stage.
The Italian 500cc MotoGP champion had finished a credible nine seconds off the lead in Thursday night's opening special stage in Cardiff.
But Rossi crashed his Peugeot in Friday's first stage, a 23km run through the Welsh forests, and was forced to retire. The car was badly damaged, but he managed to escape unhurt.
Fears over spectator safety led organizers to cancel a stage of the Rally of Great Britain in the Welsh forests on Friday.
It was the first time in the event's 70 year history that worries about fans getting to close to the track had caused a stage cancellation.
Stage four at Brechfa, which had already been driven once as Friday's opening test, was called off because too many spectators had turned out despite ticketing arrangements in place which were meant to avoid that problem.
"The stage has been cancelled on the recommendation of the FIA safety delegate due to the pressure of spectators," said Fred Gallagher, the clerk of the course.
Rally officials have been determined to minimize safety risks after an accident at last year's event when Spanish driver Carlos Sainz's car swerved into the crowd and injured a dozen spectators.
The current rally resumed on stage five at Trawscoed where newly-crowned world champion Marcus Gronholm stayed ahead of British favorites Colin McRae and Richard Burns.
Both home drivers spun off the road, Scotsman McRae, in his last race for Ford, overshooting a junction and Burns later damaging a turbo pipe after sliding into a bank.
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