FIA RALLY: VRally de France - 44th Tour De Corse, end of leg 1 report
30 September 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
VRally de France - 44th Tour De Corse
Round 11 of the FIA World Rally Championship
28th September - 1st October
The 44th Tour de Corse got off to a frantic start today with several drivers hitting trouble early on. However, once the drivers settled into the first FIA World Championship asphalt event since Catalunya, it was the Peugeot's of Francois Delecour and Gilles Panizzi that set the pace over today's six stages around Ajaccio, with the latter getting home tonight with a tiny 6sec lead. Tomorrow takes the cars north to the stages around Corte where the proximity of the mountains may bring dramatic changes of weather and maybe a few more surprises.
Peugeot
FIA World Championship leader Marcus Gronholm suffered with badly overheating brakes on the first stage today, attributed to the stresses of using left foot braking. "I've had to change to right foot braking and I'm not used to it. I've got no confidence in the brakes," he said after the second stage. His times improved later today when he changed to a more 'rigid' construction tyre. Gilles Panizzi took things easy on the opening stage before setting fastest time on the second, despite being delayed by Kenneth Eriksson's limping Hyundai. "It's not easy to come back after six months and go quickly immediately," said Panizzi. "However I hope that I can get back to being fully competitive over the next two days." Team mate Franois Delecour opened an early lead with Panizzi hard on his heels but warned that the weather may yet play its part. "If it rains then tyre choice can be a lottery," he said. "It would also favour cars with a longer wheelbase than ours." Both Delecour and Mitsubishi's Tommi Makinen had to slow on SS5 to avoid pigs on the road.
Ford
Cyprus Rally winner Carlos Sainz enjoyed a trouble free opening day in Corsica. "I think my confidence is reflected in my stage times," he said. Colin McRae was also fairly happy, but was unable to run at the Spaniard's pace after choosing too soft a tyre compared to his team mate. "The tyres were moving around too much when I pushed hard," he said. "This is typical asphalt rallying. We're all very close and so the only way anyone gets a big advantage is if someone else makes a mistake." Piero Liatti's first drive in a Ford Focus was being treated as a test exercise for the new semi-automatic gearshift. However, the system developed a fault on the opening stage and the Italian switched to the manual option for SS2. Once restored, Liatti was enthusiastic about the system. "Once you've driven with it you never want to revert to the old system again," he said.
Subaru
Richard Burns was playing a waiting game over today's six stages, fastest on the first but then concentrating on not making mistakes on the rest. "The important thing is not to make any mistakes," he said. "Pushing unnecessarily hard won't give me any advantage." Petter Solberg's first event in a factory-prepared Subaru hit trouble with gear selection problems on only the first stage. The Norwegian found himself stranded on the test before he eventually found a gear that could get him to the top of the mountain and was then able to coast down the other side. He completed the stage but went OTL before the start of SS2.
Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi's troubled Belgian driver Freddy Loix was the unfortunate first retirement of the event, sliding his Carisma GT off the road on only the third corner of the first stage. "I made a big, stupid mistake," he admitted. "I went too quickly at the start when the tyres were cold. I had no grip at all on the first left-hand corner. It took us by surprise and we went off the road." The car fell 20 metres onto a dry river bed. Team leader Tommi Makinen took harder compound tyres than his rivals for the first pair of stages but only lost a little time. He damaged a wheel on SS4 when he twice hit rocks. "No one is gaining much of an advantage," he said. "We're all going flat out."
SEAT
Didier Auriol felt his Cordoba engine was down on power over the opening pair of stages, as did Toni Gardemeister, but the Finn was s uffering more on the second stage with too soft suspension. "The car is bouncing quite a lot," he said. "It's affecting my vision." Auriol's power problem was resolved after SS4 when a broken spark plug was discovered and the Cordoba was no longer running on three cylinders. Both cars have had gearshift problems and Gardemeister has had to revert to the manual operation instead of the joystick as the engine cut-out system has failed.
Hyundai
Alister McRae lost fifth gear on the second stage but was able to have a replacement gearbox at first service. Team mate Kenneth Eriksson lost 10 minutes to the leaders on the same stage when he went off the road. He completed the stage with two punctures (that he attributed to having chosen too soft a compound) that left him running on the rims but he then retired on the run to service with a damaged clutch.
Other teams
A small fire, possibly caused by an oil leak from a damaged steering rack gaiter, forced Andrea Dallavilla to withdraw at the service parc after SS2. Group N saw FIA World Championship leader Manfred Stohl take an early lead from Jean-Marie Santoni as Mitsubishi held the first 15 places. Omani driver Hamed Al Wahaibi (in the Arab World team Subaru) led the FIA Teams Cup competition by almost a minute from the Team Atakan Toyota of Sercan Yazici.
Tyre facts
Michelin
With anticipated rain holding off, (relatively) low temperatures meant that all Michelin's WRC partners chose the 2 or Evolution 2 compound/construction of the Michelin N 'FP' dry weather tyre for at least two of the day's three loops. Michelin drivers were fastest on five of the day's six stages to fill the top four positions at the end of the first leg.
Pirelli
Richard Burns set the fastest time on the opening stage and remains in contention at the end of today. The Englishman reported no problems with his RP (dry weather) tyres while other Pirelli runners also survived without drama thanks to the EMI anti-deflation system that lessened the effect of the few damaged tyres that resulted from brushes with rocks.
Text provided by FIA
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