After completing the gruelling 54.69kms of Resolfen the pairing were lying sixth in class and within the top thirty of the 50 cars still remaining. It was on the next stage at Rheola that the MG retired two thirds of the way through. It was a bitter disappointment to the MG crew, Gwyndaf and co-driver Chris Patterson. Gwyndaf said: “Of course I’m disappointed but this weekend has shown that we have a fantastic foundation to work from. This makes me upbeat for the future. It shows how tough a WRC rally can be and the potential of the MG ZR.”

Chris added: “Disappointed to be out with just over two stages left to go and a possible fourth place in the JWRC. We’re looking forward now to developing the car for competing next year.”

The last remaining MG of Tony Jardine completed the third stage of the day first in class and headed out onto the penultimate stage at Margam in 42nd position overall. Talking of the days stages, co-driver Maurice Hamilton said: “We really want the MG to finish now as it’s so rough out there it would be a real testament to the car. It really is unbelievable. The car and the tyres are so tough to be able to cope with the bashing it’s taking. We’ve got to get it through the final stage now having got this far and we’re really pushing on. Some areas its like a ploughed field and if we went too slowly we’d come to a halt. We’re still here!”

Previously... MG DUO TO FACE HOME LEG OF RALLY GB

After two full days and 13 special stages Gwyndaf Evans and Chris Patterson lay 6th in the Super1600 class and 32nd overall in the MG ZR.

It was a good day for the Welshman as he posted fast times throughout the day with highlight being on stage 10. At the last scheduled service of the day Gwyndaf said: “It’s been much better this afternoon and very pleasing for myself and MG. We set another fastest time with everybody who’s still in fighting hard. At world championship level I think that’s a big bonus for everybody and something we should be really proud of, particularly with a car of only 11 months old.”

Tony Jardine in the second of the MG ZRs finished the day trouble free laying first in Class. Although the car faced some severe stage conditions, it battled on relentlessly. Tony explained: “It’s been a difficult day today but on the other hand very satisfying to get through to the end of the second leg. I just feel so sorry for the car, the battering it’s taken and yet I’m very, very chuffed. We’ve got through it all so far with flying colours and due to the hard work of all the MG boys who’ve kept us running. The conditions are still very slippery and treacherous with huge ruts. We’re still the smallest standard production car running.”

Gwyndaf Evans set the fastest time of the Super1600 cars on stage 10 – Halfway 1 – with a time of 13:25.2. The second fastest time of 13:47.9 was set by McShea.