Mikkelsen went quickest over the next three stages including beating the bogie on Tyle, the last stage before second service. Dodd had been consistently third fastest throughout the morning and as cars returned to service Middleton now led Marcus Dodd's similar Hyundai Accent WRC by 4.8 seconds with Mikkelsen already up to third, a further 15 seconds further back.
Julian Reynolds had dropped to seventh as the more powerful World Rally Cars gradually overhauled him, but he was still comfortably ahead of the fight for second in Group N, now headed by fellow British Rally championship contender Stephen Petch Jr.
Petch Jr. had had a slow start to the rally, hampered by the dust and suffering a brief spin mid-stage, but was now on a charge as he was constantly the quickest of the production cars.
With dust being such an issue and with numerous cars going off into the scenery the organisers took the decision to run the field at 2 minute intervals rather than the normal 1 minute interval, but this extra time delay meant that the final 16 mile run through Resolven 2 would have to be cancelled due to time constraints.
Both Dodd and Middleton headed to the final stage acutely aware of the need to keep pushing but both were also conscious of the fact that they'd suffered heartbreaking retirements on the final stage, whilst leading, at events earlier in the year. Once more the leader going into the last stage suffered problems as Middleton clipped a rock and smashed a rear wheel 5 miles from the end of Rheola. The resulting time loss dropped the young Welshman from first to third as Dodd, who had gone second quickest through the stage ended the event with a 3.3 second lead over Mikkelsen.
"At least it's a solid haul of points," commented a slightly disheartened Middleton, "even if the final run through Resolven hadn't been cancelled it would have been hard to catch Mikkelsen, but perhaps I could have clawed some time back from Marcus - still, that's rallying!"
![Andreas Mikkelsen [Pic credit: Geoff Mayes Images / www.geoffmayesimages.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/246921.jpg)
