A late night in Florence was followed by an early start for the 43 remaining crews on the London to Cape Town World Cup Rally. Day four saw a morning of competitive driving in Umbria, with another timed-to-the-second World Cup test-section to complete.

Unfortunately, it happened through dense fog and patches of black ice. This was enough to catch out Rachel Vestey and Suzy Harvey who have been inside the top ten from the start with their game little MG ZR. They braked into a roundabout and slid straight on, clouting a concrete parapet.  This was sufficient to stuff the radiator and damage the steering.  But having completed the Peking to Paris in 2010 they know all about being resourceful and soon found someone to sort the damage. However, it wasn’t done quick enough to catch the mid-day superfast ferry to Greece, and the girls have missed the boat. However, they plan to catch another, sailing a few hours later, and reckon on catching up by the middle of day five.

Also suffering again today was the crew of Car 44, the Peugeot 504 of Dave Gough and Richard Phillipson, who were pushed onto the boat with minutes to spare after suffering head-gasket failure…this on top of fuel problems that have heaped up frustrations since leaving Big Ben.

Best-performing car today was the Porsche 911 of car 45, Joost Van Cauwenberge and Jacques Castelein, who dropped just 32 seconds, the engine of the Porsche echoing off the rocky walls…he overtook Alastair Caldwell’s  four-cylinder 912 in the closing few kilometres. Car 10 was second, the Australian crew of Mark Pickering and Dave Boddy who dropped 45 seconds in their Datsun P510. Car 33, Owen Turner’s MGZR was third – enough to maintain his strong overall lead - while Caldwell and Hayden Burvill appeared on the leaderboard for the first time. Next came car 41, the Peugeot 504 of Guy Chriqui and Phillippe Thiolat from France, 1m36s, closely followed by Ben and Mike Dawson in the orange Escort on 1m39s.

Andy Actman and Andy Elcomb in the Toyota Hilux remain second overall but gave up another 50 seconds to the leaders. The gravel was wet and some sections were muddy, but the two Andys found that having four-wheel-drive is not much help here.  ‘We expected to gain on him this morning – what have we got to do?’ was Actman’s comment.

Next stop, the tough but thrilling gravel stages of Greece, in the wheeltracks of the Acropolis Rally. And it could all change here. To see the overall results, click here.