OXFORDSHIRE rally ace Richard Burns drew first blood in his very own Battle of Britain with rally rival Colin McRae.

Burns, from Kidlington, beat Scot McRae in a Silverstone shoot-out between the duo on the Network Q Rally of Great Britain to end the opening day in a promising fourth place.

The 28-year-old opened up a lead of almost 16 seconds over the eighth-placed McRae who had to have the door of his Ford Focus replaced after an early smash.

Burns is 8.1 seconds behind Subaru teammate Juha Kankkunen, a three-time British winner who leads the rally from the pursuing Peugeots of Francois Delecour and Marcus Gronholm.

Burns struck the first psychological blow in the contest to prove who is Britain's No 1.

Burns beat former world champion McRae by just 0.8secs in the superspecial on the Northamptonshire circuit as they took their pre-rally war of words on to the track

But it was the time Burns took out of McRae on the opening day's other six stages, which included Blenheim Palace and Cornbury Park, which gave him the edge heading into the forests of mid-Wales today.

Story date: Monday 22 November

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