Latvala lost a massive eight minutes after sliding off at the same corner which unfortunately ended the event for Garry Jennings, who was unable to regain the track. Thomson rolled his Mitsubishi off the road, but was able to continue with only superficial body damage. By the time the cars arrived back at
parc fermé in Gateshead, Wilks was leading Higgins by 59 seconds, with Gwyndaf Evans a further 50 seconds behind. The nearest WRC car was Laukkanen’s in fourth place, two and a half minutes behind Wilks. Mirco Baldacci had done really well to keep his Punto up in ninth place, the poor chap confessing to never having seen fog like this in Italy.
Incredibly, Saturday morning dawned sunny and clear, and as the field headed towards Kielder once more for the second leg’s six stages, the WRC drivers were plotting their revenge for being so humbled by the 1600 brigade. Sure enough, Laukkanen, Milner, Latvala and Thompson started putting the pressure on, although the latter pair were rather too far behind to challenge for the lead, Thompson in particular having the problem of catching slower cars after being re-seeded in a lowly 17th position after his incident the night before. A cracked windscreen as he returned to the second Hexham service bore testament to this.
A definite pattern soon emerged: Laukkanen, Milner, Thompson and Latvala were the four quickest drivers on five of the six Saturday stages, with the younger Finn dropping to seventh on SS6, as their power and grip advantage inexorably overcame the 1600s. At the end of SS6, the overall classification was Wilks, Higgins, Evans, Laukkanen, Milner, Reynolds, as the 1600s maintained their overnight advantage.
