FORMULA ONE: Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney says he has left Italy fearing for his safety after being accused of passing confidential information to McLaren's chief designer.

"There have been high-speed car chases. We've been followed by more than one car, with Italian plates, and when we cornered one of them last Thursday evening the men in it refused to speak," the Observer newspaper reported him as saying.

"I don't believe they were journalists," the 47-year-old Briton added.

"There was tracking gear on my car. Someone was going to get hurt. I had no option (but) to get out of Italy."

Stepney was dismissed by Ferrari last week after Formula One's glamour team took legal action against him for the "theft of technical information".

McLaren have also suspended a senior technician, pending an investigation after Ferrari data was allegedly found in his possession.

Honda issued a statement on Friday saying no Ferrari information had been offered to or received by them.

MOTOR SPORT: The National Rally Championship leader, Aaron MacHale, in a Ford Focus WRC co-driven by Killian Duffy, took his fourth straight victory in the series when he won yesterday's Sligo Rally, round seven, writes Brian Foley.

He finished four seconds ahead of the reigning champion, Charlie Donnelly, in a Toyota Corolla WRC. Ian Barrett/Eoin O'Flaherty (Subaru) won Group N and Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort) won the two-wheel drive category.

ATHLETICS: The former pole-vault world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco has said he will quit the sport after the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni), which acts as Italy's anti-doping authority, told the Italian Athletics Federation to impose the maximum ban on the 28-year-old, who won gold at the world championships in Paris in 2003.

"I will jump at Padua, on Tuesday at Lausanne and perhaps Sunday the 15th at Sheffield. Then I will leave athletics." Gibilisco said.