RALLY: Monte Carlo End of Round 3
21 January 1999
End of Leg 3(note: Leg 1 was the liason on Sunday, Leg 2 was the first days rallying on Monday)
Makinen leads...the leader board from yesterday has shuffled around slightly but there have been no major retirements. Liatti dropped to 9th due to brake failure and Thiry lost some time when he spun twice.
Also, during yesterdays rallying, Gilles Panizzi was penalised 30 seconds after his car was push started out of Parc Ferme. Due to a contradiction in rules, this penalty was withdrawn and this meant that Panizzi actually finished ahead of Makinen at the end of Leg 2. Today, unfortunately Gilles was not so lucky - he was penalised 20 seconds when he had trouble starting his car in another Parc Ferme and he also lost 1 minute when his Subaru stalled on a hairpin and he had to climb on the roadside to start again. Further problems for Panizzi as snow, thrown onto the road by spectators caused him to spin (SS9).
Makinen 'says' he is being very cautious. Throughout the day, he has made the right tyre choices and also put bigger disks on the front of the car.
McRae on the other hand in the new Focus made a wrong tyre choice, choosing grooved slicks over snow tyres.
Auriol, in the Corolla, caught up over a minute on Thiry who is now less than 20 seconds in front.
Disappointment for Liatti as he drops to 9th, one place behind team mate Rovanpera, due to brake failure. This occured on the final stage and he only had his handbrake to stop him - this lost Liatti several minutes. The team has been very happy so far with the performance of the Seat WRC and have been making handling improvements throughout the rally. Rovanpera, with limited experience with studded tyres, playing it 'safe' in the slippery conditions.
Unofficial results and of Leg 3: 1 Makinen Mitsubishi 3:48:56,5 2 Panizzi Subaru 3:50:42,1 3 Kankkunen Subaru 3:51:02,3 4 McRae Ford 3:51:44,2 5 Delecour Ford 3:53:06,3 6 Thiry Subaru 3:53:33,4 7 Auriol Toyota 3:53:50,2 8 Rovanpera Seat 3:55:57,2 9 Liatti Seat 3:55:59,9 10 Burns Subaru 3:58:31,9 Formula 2: 1 Gardemeister Seat 4:11:43,8 2 Maselli Renault 4:23:40,3 Group N: 1 Duez Mit Carisma 4:08:18,5 2 Trelles Mit Evo V 4:12:47,4 ----------------------------------------------------------- Stage Winners: SS6 - Panizzi (Subaru) SS7 - Makinen (Mitsubishi) SS8 - Kankkunen (Subaru) SS9 - Makinen (Mitsubishi) SS10 - McRae (Ford) ----------------------------------------------------------- SS 6 Bif.C1/D1-Bayons 32,52km Weather: -4c Stage Conditions: Icy everywhere but the last 4 Km Notes: - Auriol: "I did not select the right tyres. The stage was tricky." - Panizzi: 20 seconds penalty for arriving 2 minutes late (couldn't start) - Liatti: Broken left front wheelrim. Has trouble with his brakes. - Thiry: "I was too cautious on the black ice." - McRae: Broken left front wheelrim. - Rovanpera: Made the right choice of tyres. - Burns: Broken left front wheelrim. Stage Pos/ Driver/ Car/ Stage Time: 1 Panizzi Subaru 24:13,1 2 McRae Ford 24:47,1 3 Makinen Mitsubishi 25:02,6 4 Kankkunen Subaru 25:10,2 5 Auriol Toyota 25:15,2 ----------------------------------------------------------- Service - Auriol: Half studs (tyres); bigger disks on front - Panizzi: Half studs - Makinen: bigger discs at the front. Tyres hand-cut without studs. - McRae: Tyres with minimal tread cut (slicks). - Liatti: Front discs changed. Studded tyres. - Rovanpera: Front discs changed. Tyres without studs. - Thiry: Tyres without studs. - Kankkunen: Tyres with two rows of studs. - Burns: Tyres with tiny studs. ----------------------------------------------------------- SS 7 Sisteron - Thoard 36,72km Weather: 8c Stage Conditions: Dry over 90 % - 2Km of icy snow in the downhill. Notes: - Panizzi: "I slipped a lot with studs on a dry road." - Makinen: Snow tyres without studs, glad he selected them. - Thiry: "I drove savely on the snowy part." - McRae: "Wrong tyres." - Auriol: "It probably was better without studs." - Rovanpera: "I do not have that much experience with these tyres, and I chose to play it safe." - Burns: "I had too many studs." - Jean-Joseph: "The car is oversteering a great deal." Stage Pos/ Driver/ Car/ Stage Time: 1 Makinen Mitsubishi 25:43,4 2 Liatti Seat 25:57,7 3 Auriol Toyota 26:05,2 4 Kankkunen Subaru 26:07,8 5 Delecour Ford 26:12,6 ----------------------------------------------------------- SS 8 Entrevaux - Saint Pierre 30,73km Weather: 10c Stage Conditions: Snow patches alterning with wet portion. Dangerous snow patches after the Col du Trbuchet. Notes: - Panizzi: Suspension too hard. Intermediate tyres ok. The engine stalled in a hairpin and lost 1 minute. - Makinen: Intermediate tyres. "It was very difficult on the ice." - Kankkunen: "Everything is going fine." - Thiry: Two half-spins in the first part of the stage. Intermediate tyres without studs. - Delecour: "The car is running fine." - Auriol: Stalled the engine in a hairpin and lost about 10 seconds. Intermediate tyres. Conditions in the stage were crappy. - Rovanpera: Brakes are overheating. - Burns: "For once I chose the right tyres." - Jean-Joseph: Bumped in a left-hander 10 km after the start of the SS. Has bent his steering slightly. Stage Pos/ Driver/ Car/ Stage Time: 1 Kankkunen Subaru 23:58,4 2 Makinen Mitsubishi 24:01,7 3 Liatti Seat 24:05,9 4 McRae Ford 24:16,1 5 Burns Subaru 24:25,8 ----------------------------------------------------------- Service - Makinen: Intermediate tyres. - McRae: Steering changed. - Jean-Joseph: Right front half-axle changed. - Auriol: Intermediate tyres with no hand-cutting. - Panizzi: Hand-cut intermediate tyres. - Liatti: Gearbox display changed. Slightly hand-cut intermediate tyres. - Rovanpera: Heavily hand-cut intermediate tyres. - B. Bagur (Team engineer Seat): "We are improving the car's handling on tarmac, with the precious help of Liatti who is a specialist on this surface. ----------------------------------------------------------- SS 9 Sospel - La Bollene Vesubie 33,65km Weather: 2-6c, Clear Sky Stage Wet road and snow thrown by spectators in the 4 last Km of the uphill. Notes: - Panizzi: Spun on the snow thrown by spectators - Burns: Engine misfire; Stage time: 30:28,1 - Thiry: stalled on an uphill section Stage Pos/ Driver/ Car/ Stage Time: 1 Makinen Mitsubishi 27:20,1 2 Kankkunen Subaru 27:27,6 3 Auriol Toyota 27:36,1 4 Thiry Subaru 27:41,3 5 Delecour Ford 27:47,2 ----------------------------------------------------------- SS 10 Lantosque - Luceram 20,87km Weather: 2-4c, Clear Sky Stage Conditions: Wet. Ice patches from 9-9.5km, 10-10.5km and from 11.5-12.5km Notes: - Liatti had no brakes and lost several minutes Stage Pos/ Driver/ Car/ Stage Time: 1 McRae Ford 15:22,7 2 Auriol Toyota 15:24,9 3 Delecour Ford 15:36,5 4 Makinen Mitsubishi 15:36,9 5 Panizzi Subaru 15:48,2