RALLY: Vintage McRae delivers victory for Ford in Portugal
25 March 1999
Colin McRae and Nicky Grist today won the Rally of Portugal in their Ford Focus World Rally Car, their second consecutive FIA World Rally Championship victory. The Ford Martini World Rally Team pairing led from the first of the rallys 21 special stages and ended the four-day event 12.3 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz after 360km of gruelling gravel roads in northern and central Portugal.The win, the teams second success in a month after victory on Kenyas Safari Rally, lifted Ford into second in the manufacturers championship and enabled McRae to climb to second in the drivers standings, just two points behind Tommi Mkinen. The Ford Focus has now won two of its first four rallies, within two months of its rally debut.
This is a great victory for the Focus on its first real gravel rally, said 30-year-old McRae, for whom this was his 18th world championship triumph. We really won the rally during the first leg when we knew we had to make the most of the good conditions. We drove hard through those fast stages as we knew the technical stages later in the rally, where the road conditions were not so good, would be more difficult.
"Its been much harder than many of my other victories but the Focus has performed faultlessly. For the car to be this quick on gravel means it can also be this good on asphalt so I think the rest of the season could be well worth waiting for. Its incredible for a car to be so successful so early in its lifetime and with further development it can only improve, added the 1995 world champion.
The Rally of Portugal, the first of the sprint-type gravel events which make up so much of the world championship, is regarded as a yardstick for the season ahead, a fact recognised by Ford Martini team director Malcolm Wilson. To win in Kenya was marvellous but to win here, on a gravel event where pure outright speed counts for everything, is very, very special. Colin led from the first stage to the last. He opened up a big advantage early on the first leg and controlled it from the front without ever being under pressure. The Focus ran like clockwork and thats so encouraging for us.
"Well now look at restructuring our strategy for the next four rallies. Well run only two cars on those events and put everything into helping Colins chances of winning the drivers series before assessing things after the Acropolis Rally in June," he added.
Petter Solberg, competing in Portugal for the first time and on only his fifth world championship event, added to the joy of the Ford Martini team by collecting the final manufacturers point en route to 11th overall. The 24-year-old Norwegian, co-driven by Philip Mills, grew in confidence as the event progressed and he became more accustomed to the pace and conditions.
"This has been a hard rally for me but also a very enjoyable one, said Solberg. Once again it was important for me to finish and learn as much about the event as possible. The first two legs were difficult and my spirits were a little low but my times have improved today and my confidence has increased. I was delighted to score a point for the Ford Martini team but annoyed that I missed out on a top 10 position after flipping the car on its side on the final stage. The damage was not great but the time loss meant I missed out on 10th by less than four seconds."
News from our Rivals
Todays short final leg caused few problems for any of the leading competitors. Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol (both Toyota) maintained their overnight podium positions although Auriol had a scare on the final stage when he hit a bank which flung the Frenchmans car high onto two wheels. Tommi Mkinen (Mitsubishi) made a determined effort to catch Richard Burns (Subaru) for fourth but the Finn was nine seconds short and had to settle for fifth, with Bruno Thiry (Subaru) taking the final drivers point in sixth, despite yesterdays roll.
Next Round
Drivers return to asphalt for round five of the FIA World Rally Championship, Spains Catalunya Rally. Based in the seaside resort of Lloret de Mar, close to Barcelona, the rally is the first genuine all-asphalt event of the season and runs from 19 - 21 April.
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