FIA Rally: 2000 Neste Rally Finland End of Leg 2 Report
20 August 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
2000 Neste Rally FinlandRound 9 of the FIA World Rally Championship
17-20 August
End of Leg 2
Saturday, 19th August 2000
A dramatic start to today's second leg south of Jyvaskyla tore the heart out of the battle for victory and left Finland's Marcus Gronholm with what seemed to be an invincible lead over Harri Rovanpera and Colin McRae. Toni Gardemeister, Richard Burns and Freddy Loix all retired between the restart and the end of the day's first stage, turning Gronholm's narrow overnight lead into a much more comfortable advantage.
Peugeot
Not surprisingly rally leader Marcus Gronholm breathed a big sigh of relief at the end of today's first stage as his closest rival retired. However, while the Peugeot team inherited an extra 30 seconds advantage with Burns' retirement, Gronholm can't relax for one moment. "It is important now to keep my rhythm and concentrate on reaching the finish tomorrow," he said. "It's a shame that Richard crashed because I was enjoying the battle between us." Peugeot second nominated driver, Sebastian Lindholm, reported problems with the turbocharger at the end of SS15 and lies in fifth place.
Ford
Carlos Sainz started the day running eleventh on the road after being re-seeded overnight by the stewards but the Spaniard was really in an overall position of 30th, having dropped to 110th at one point yesterday. His day as a Ford test driver didn't get off to a good start as he rolled in the opening stage but, unlike many of his rivals, was able to continue. "It was a bit stupid really," he confessed. "I dropped the back of the car into the ditch at a slow speed and it just rolled over. The car looks bad but it's running OK." Team-mate Colin McRae was promoted to third after Burns' retirement and he has seemingly opted for a cautious approach. "With Richard out it's better for me to stay on the safe side and try to ensure I score points. If you look at the tyre tracks from Marcus and Harri you can see that they are still trying very, very hard. I thought it was going to be quite easy to pass Harri but he's proving too tenacious for me to take any big chances."
Mitsubishi
Freddy Loix was among several drivers to retire from the event on the opening stage today. The Belgian nosed his Carisma off the road after misjudging the required pace over a jump but got going again, only to collide with a rock a few kilometres later. The radiator was damaged and without coolant there was no chance for him to continue in the event. Team leader Tommi Makinen should have benefited from Burns' retirement but instead took too soft a tyre for the first three stages and was unable to capitalise on his rival's misfortune.
SEAT
Toni Gardemeister completed yesterday's first leg in tenth place with the new SEAT Cordoba WRC E3, but he didn't get as far as the first service park today. With just 500m of the 105kms run out to Halli to go the SEAT stopped. "There was no pressure to the fuel pumps," said the young Finn. "It was a really stupid problem." Team director Vicente Aguilera said that an electronic fault had caused the fuel pumps to stop working and was related to a problem that began before yesterday's final stage. "With no service after last night's stage we could not solve it until the car got to Halli this morning," he explained. There was better news today for Didier Auriol, whose car was now handling as it should after a dreadful opening leg.
Hyundai
Alister McRae had his centre differential changed as a precaution at the lunchtime service today, after it had started to become noisy. Kenneth Eriksson felt that the car wasn't getting the maximum power output but otherwise everything was fine in the team. Co-driver Staffan Parmander was thoroughly enjoying himself. "This is one event where the notes have to be absolutely right," he said. "It gives co-driving an extra dimension."
Subaru
A fifth gear bend immediately after the flying finish of today's first stage claimed Richard Burns and will almost certainly lead to him losing the FIA World Championship lead for the first time since he moved ahead in Portugal. Burns completed the stage without problem but in the tricky braking area before the stop line, Burns lost control of the Subaru and rolled into the trees. The crew emerged shaken but with no serious injuries although the car was far too badly damaged to continue. "We had the corner down as a flat right that tightens and that's exactly what it was. I was just going too fast to get round it." Burns tried everything to slow the car in the fractions of a second available but it rolled several times in a 70 metre stretch of road. Fastest times on SS13 (his first of the event) and SS15 for Juha Kankkunen promoted the veteran Finn to fifth place and then fourth but he was still nearly a minute adrift of the leader. However, just as he began to look as though he could improve even further he punctured on Ouninpohja and it took so long to change the wheel that he dropped to 13th.
Other teams
Harri Rovanpera believes that there is no way that can catch Marcus Gronholm and is now concentrating on staying ahead of Colin McRae for second place. Markko Martin lost his place in the top 10 when he went off for four minutes on SS12 after collecting his second puncture of the day. Yuuso Pikalisto leads the Group N, where Jouko Puhakka retired from second after a track rod broke and folded the right front wheel under the car on stage 12. After stage 17 Abdullah Bakhashab leads the FIA Teams' Cup classification for Toyota Team Saudi Arabia.
Tyre facts
Michelin
Michelin is clearly pleased with the performance of its products in the changeable conditions that survivors have had to face during today's second leg. Continuing to use the Michelin ZA pattern, as he did on Day 1, Marcus Grnholm has been able to control from in front, while Michelin's partners fill the top 6 places after SS17. Michelin also provisionally leads in Group N with Paasonen (Mitsubishi-Michelin), while the showing of French privateer Olivier Marty - competing for the first time and currently leading the highly competitive A6 class with his Peugeot-Michelin 106 - cannot be overlooked. After SS17, Michelin partners have set five scratch times today with three different drivers.
Pirelli
Although Juha Kankkunen set two fastest times during the day (using both the K and KM pattern tyres) it was outside influences that determined the overall performance of the leading Pirelli crews today. Richard Burns was denied the chance to challenge Marcus Gronholm for the lead and Kankkunen's bid to reach the podium was dashed with a rare puncture on the Ouninpohja stage this afternoon.
Text provided by FIA
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos
and art, visit
The Racing
Photo Museum and the
Visions
of Speed Art Gallery.