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FIA RALLY: 33rd TAP Rally of Portugal 2000 Final Report, Burns Wins

20 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Congratulations to Subaru and Richard Burns! The English driver won every stage today to catch and pass overnight leader Marcus Gronholm in a tense finale to the Portugal Rally. The final stage, shown live on Portuguese television, saw the two rivals fighting hard in the dust with Burns extending his narrow advantage over the final 11kms to win the event and move into the lead of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Subaru

Subaru debuted its new Impreza WRC2000 here in Portugal and came away with a magnificent victory for Richard Burns. "This was a great team effort," he said at the finish line of the final stage. "Everyone has worked so hard for this and it's the proper reward for that effort. The new car has made all the difference and we've still got more to come from it. We're probably only 80% there yet." Burns has become the first English driver ever to lead the World Rally Championship and has ended Tommi Makinen's run at the head of the series that he has held since Australia 1998. Subaru has extended its lead at the head of the Manufacturers' Championship.

Peugeot

Marcus Gronholm gave maximum effort to hold off Richard Burns on the final stage, the Peugeot 206WRC being flung through the stage at some wild angles as the Finn tried desperately to steal the victory from the English driver at the end. Unfortunately it was not enough and Gronholm, the Swedish Rally winner, had to settle for second. "This was the best battle of my career," he said. "Just wait till we get the new engine - then we'll reverse this result!" The result moves him to a share of second spot in the Championship with Tommi Makinen. Francois Delecour finished fifth and the combined result for Peugeot moves the team to equal third with Ford after four rounds.

Ford

After a broken driveshaft forced Carlos Sainz to slow on the final stage last night, the Spaniard knew that there was little chance to improve on third place today despite competing on stages close to the Spanish border and therefore in front of many of his home supporters. It was clear that he had little choice but to settle for third place and four points. Last night Petter Solberg was forced to retire on the penultimate stage with clutch failure. "This was my first pure gravel event in the Focus," said Sainz. "It took time to adapt but the fact that I was able to set fastest times shows we're at a good level. Of course I'm now looking forward to my home event in 10 days' time!"

Mitsubishi

Tommi Makinen's first day retirement cost him the Championship lead and put the full weight of responsibility on the shoulders of Freddy Loix. The Belgian responded by finishing seventh, just outside the Drivers' points standings but scoring two valuable points for Mitsubishi in the Manufacturers' competition. In Group N Mitsubishi virtually swept the board with 13 of the top 15 places going to their cars.

Skoda

Skoda maintained its 100% scoring record from this year's championship but Armin Schwarz admitted it hadn't been easy. "I had to push quite hard to maintain my position today but the car is reliable and we're looking forward to getting more power, hopefully in Greece." Luis Climent was also delighted to reach the finish. "This is one of the toughest rounds of the Championship, he said. "I'm now looking forward to Catalunya as it's my home event and we've already had a really good asphalt test.

SEAT

SEAT, along with Peugeot was the only other team to get all three of its top cars through to the finish of an incredibly demanding Portugal Rally. Unfortunately a run of mechanical problems kept Didier Auriol and Toni Gardemeister down the leaderboard and, with just three stages today, the SEATs were unable to regain the time lost. Team director Jaime Puig admitted: This wasn't the result we expected. Things began well but the problems relegated us to unusual positions. We have to accept that sometimes a great deal of effort doesn't always give us the prize we are looking for. Our home event in Catalunya is in just 10 days and we have a lot of work to do in a short time."

Other Teams

Harri Rovanpera's fourth place for the Grifone team was another superb result in the Toyota. "I'm really pleased, the car has been fantastic," he enthused at the finish. "I think I've shown that I still deserve a top drive." Markko Martin was another unregistered driver among the official teams, also in a Toyota. Frederic Dor was the only FIA Teams Cup finisher while Michael Guest ended the event as first car home in the 'Formula 2' category.

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