RALLYING: BRIT ACES RALLY ROUND

THREE weeks ago in Argentina it was Colin McRae who muscled his way to victory, elbowing out arch-rival Richard Burns.

This weekend the two British rally aces are locked in battle for victory again - this time on the Cyprus Rally.

Last night the Union Jacks were flying high on Limassol's tourist strip at the prospect of a second British one-two in as many rallies. After 14 stages of being coated in dust and baked in the 130-degree ovens of their cockpits, Subaru's Burns has just a three-second lead from Ford's McRae.

McRae had started day two of the three-day rally in fourth, but benefited from the three cars ahead "cleaning" the mountain roads of slippery gravel.

The Scot briefly took the lead before deliberately dropping to second to get the advantage of Burns sweeping Sunday's stages clear of gravel.

"There was nothing I could do about it," said Burns.

"It's not going to be much better for the last day but if I tried to back off then one of the guys behind could have taken a lot of time off me."

In a straight fight, McRae is confident of being able to beat Burns for a second rally in a row.

A win in Cyprus would lift him to within two points of championship leader Tommi Makinen, who slid down a ravine and out of the rally on Friday.

"To think that a month ago I had no points," said McRae. "But there are eight hard stages to go before there are any points from this rally, let alone 10 for a win."

Also in the running is reigning world champion Marcus Gronholm in third and last year's winner Carlos Sainz. Britain's Alister McRae is ninth.

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