Peugeot pushes on as Safari bites Burns.

Peugeot suffered mixed fortunes as the eighth round of the FIA World Rally Championship - the Safari Rally - continued into a second gruelling day in Kenya.

Finnish 206 WRC driver Harri Rovanper? moved up into a strong second overall during today's stages, but his team-mate Richard Burns suffered a heartbreaking retirement in bizarre and cruel circumstances.

This morning's early start, which saw bleary-eyed crews leaving host city Nairobi from 0445hrs, clearly suited both the Finn and reigning world champion Burns, as they increased their pace to put pressure on rivals and benefit from further retirements caused by the blend of long distances, rough roads and high temperatures.

Rovanpera was instantly on the pace, setting second fastest time in the day's first competitive section. He then backed that up with third fastest time in the third scheduled run - after the second was cancelled due to low cloud cover, which prevented safety helicopters from flying - to move ahead of Carlos Sainz.

With yesterday's leader Tommi M?kinen hitting problems, Rovanpera's battle with the Spaniard became a scrap for second overall. When Sainz retired with engine problems in the day's penultimate test, the Finn was handed the position, and he continued to press on to end the day less than three minutes behind leader Colin McRae.

"It's been a difficult day," Rovanpera said, "We've pushed slightly harder than yesterday and obviously both Carlos and Tommi have had some problems while we've been reliable, so we've moved up. We've been close to Colin McRae's pace in front, but we'll just have to see what happens tomorrow. We have to keep concentration and stay at this pace, where we're comfortable and reliable. There's a long way to go yet."

Burns, meanwhile, began to drive beyond his pacenotes today, after deciding that he'd been too cautious in some of his corner- and rock-grading during the pre-event reconnaissance.

The Englishman took some risks, particularly in CS7, where he was fastest overall, but his improved pace moved him up the leaderboard from his overnight eighth to seventh by lunchtime service. The retirements of M?kinen, Sainz and Kenneth Eriksson looked set hand the reigning world champion a points finish but, 500 metres before the end of CS7, he broke a bolt in the front-left suspension of his car, and completed the 50km of road section that followed with the tyre rubbing into the wheel arch. Then, just as it appeared that he may make it back to the Suswa service park, the car sank into deep sand at the entry gate and became beached.

With no outside assistance allowed, Burns and co-driver Robert Reid tried every method possible of gaining traction to reach the time control and the help of their Peugeot mechanics. Rocks, spare tyres and even advertising banners were used in an attempt to get the car out of the powdery soil but, in the end, the pair had to accept bitter defeat and retire

"I'm almost lost for words," Burns said, "I knew all the way along the road section that it was going to be a problem when I got to that service park and, sure enough, we got stuck.

"We risk our lives doing high speeds on the roads here and to retire like this, actually in the service park, is an insult to everyone in the world championship - me, the team, the media and everyone involved. We've known for three days that this service park was a problem and this has gone to prove that. It's simply the most disappointing way that I've ever retired from an event."

"This is not funny at all," agreed Peugeot Total team director Corrado Provera, "When a driver gets through the stage and then cannot get through the service area, something is wrong with the system. We are very proud of Richard and Robert and how hard they worked to stay in the event, but we are extremely disappointed for them."

The other remaining 206 WRC of Gilles Panizzi has moved into the points-scoring positions, as the Frenchman impressed many onlookers with steady yet fast driving on roads he still doesn't know well. He kept a cool head while others retired, and he arrived back in Nairobi this evening in sixth overall.

Tomorrow's final leg is the shortest of the event, but that doesn't mean it will be easy. Crews will still have to leave their beds before 0430hrs to tackle three more competitive sections totalling more than 250 kilometres. With all of those tests being run for the second time, there remains plenty of scope for drama before the winner claims rallying's toughest prize in the centre of Nairobi tomorrow afternoon.