Villa Carlos Paz, May 11: Spaniard Carlos Sainz retained the lead at the Rally of Argentina on Saturday (May 10) after the 19th stage following crowd troubles that affected two earlier stages. Saturday's first stage was cancelled and the second disrupted, causing organisers to postpone the last two stages until Sunday, when they will be run before the final three stages. Sainz holds a 32.3 second lead over Ford's Estonian driver Markko Martin after he won the 9.5-km 19th 'Tanti' stage. Britain's Richard Burns in a Peugeot remained in third, almost 50 seconds behind Sainz. World champion Marcus Gronholm, who had led until he hit a rock on stage nine on Friday, moved into fourth after he won the 17th 'Cosquin' stage and also set the fastest time of six minutes, 33.7 seconds during the crowd-affected 15th stage. The stage was brought to a halt after many competitors had already completed the 9.6-km course and seven who were unable to complete the run were awarded the same time as the Finnish Peugeot driver.


The day's first stage, the 14th, over 23.02-km at Capilla Del Monte, was abandoned because some of the crowd were standing in dangerous positions and no times were counted.


Leading positions in the Rally of Argentina (after 19 of 25 stages) on Saturday: 1. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen 2 hours 43 mins 13.1 secs 2. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford 32.3 seconds behind 3. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 49.8 4. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 58.2 5. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 1:11.1 6. Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Peugeot 1:32.1 7. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 3:16.0 8. Francois Duval (Belgium) Ford 4:17.7 9. Armin Schwarz (Germany) Hyundai 5:00.0 10. Didier Auriol (France) Skoda 5:25.8


Bureau Report