Catchpole meanwhile was making good progress and enjoying the long flowing daylight stages when his car cut out after a heavy landing and was unable to trace the problem and retired.
Back at service he was very circumspect about his plight and commented: "That's rallying. I only started this year and it's been a very steep learning curve, but it's great fun."
The battle for honours continued into the afternoon stages between Bjerg, Forde and Nichol with 19-year old Rowland posting some good times and showing a great deal of maturity in gaining valuable experience without taking too many risks.
Stage 11 saw the demise of Bjerg when he went off the road and finished up in one of Kielder's infamous deep ditches. The car was virtually undamaged, but it was stuck fast and they thought their chance of a podium finish was gone. This elevated Forde to first position followed by Nichol and the fast improving Rowland.
On the last loop of stages the cars were taking a pounding on the heavily rutted tracks and on unlucky stage 13 Forde suffered the same fate as Gamble and retired. This left Nichol with a comfortable lead and he was able to nurse his car home to win the rally with a surprised but delighted Rowland taking second position and Niki Berg third despite his car being in parc ferme after his crash.
To add to Forde's woes, he was unable to get his car back to the parc ferme on time and therefore was classed as a non-finisher and collected no points.
Speaking at the finish Nichol was delighted: "That was one of the hardest rallies I've ever done. We were a bit disheartened earlier having lost some time, but we can't believe we've won. Thanks to all of our service crew, friends and family that helped us get here – it's amazing."
