Perez was third and beginning to get into the rhythm whilst a quick time for Jon Ingram on the long run through Gatheiniog had seen him move up to fifth overall.
Two stunning times for BRC regular Julian Reynolds saw him leading Group N, but Wyn Humphries, also in a Subaru Impreza, was only 4 seconds behind him. A puncture on Stage 2 had cost Burton a lot of time and the Peugeot Cosworth was languishing outside the top ten.
Burton pushed hard on stage 3, but so did those ahead with Middleton, Perez and Ingram separated by a handful of seconds - however out front once again it was Mikkelsen on a seemingly unstoppable march to yet another victory. A slow time for Reynolds saw Humphries move to within 0.4 of a second of the class lead.
With the weather getting progressively worse Middleton took a conservative approach to the reverse run through the 14 miles of Gatheiniog, dropping almost 6 seconds to his championship rival. Once again Perez was closest to Mikkelsen's similar car, but still 6 seconds slower than the 17 year old Norwegian. Further back Reynolds had powered ahead of his class rivals and now held a 12 second lead over Stephen Wetford who had also moved past Humphries.
After Perez had come to within 6 seconds of Mikkelsen's time on the previous stage he was put firmly in place when Andreas took a further 15 seconds out of everyone on the penultimate stage, the 14 mile run through Dyfi. This stage also saw the demise of Burton when gearbox problems sidelined the previous winner. Burton's problems elevated Group N leader Julian Reynolds into sixth overall.
![Craig Middleton [Geoff Mayes Images - www.geoffmayesimages.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/276899.jpg)
