The car occasionally fails at starting or soon afterwards. The starter motor works but the engine does not, although after a while it will re-start again. Could this be something else rather than the distributor itself? I would be grateful if anyone has similar experience or can make any suggestions.

Hello
This happened to my BG (1.6 auto). It turned out to be the ignition system, the module inside the distributor, and the garage replaced the coil as well.

Before that it was mis-diagnosed by the AA as fuel, they sprayed carb cleaner into the air intake, and it strangely improved things for a while.