FIA RALLY: VRally de France - 44th Tour De Corse End of Leg 2 Report
1 October 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Today's second leg, based north of Ajaccio on stages around Corte,
proved just as dramatic as yesterday's leg close to Ajaccio. Last
night's thunderstorms left the stages soaking wet and littered with
leaves, causing problems for tyre choice. However, the Peugeots
continued to set the pace with Gilles Panizzi gradually extending his
lead over team mate Francois Delecour. Heavy concentration of
spectators forced the FIA Safety Delegate to recommend the cancellation
of SS8 while SS10 was halted with just six cars recording a time
following the accident that ended Colin McRae's Corsica Rally. In
the very last stage Delecour snatched the lead from his team mate and
will restart tomorrow final leg with probably the smaller margin ever,
2 tenths of a second!
Peugeot
Gilles Panizzi began today's second leg as he had finished yesterday's stages - setting fastest times. The Frenchman, who has still to win a World Championship rally, was surprised to be so quick in the wet. " I thought that we would lose a lot more time but we found that we had just as much traction in the wet as we did in the dry." While Panizzi revelled in the conditions, his team mate Francois Delecour was not so happy with the same hand-cut Michelin TA03 intermediate tyres that had given Panizzi the edge. He said after the stage that he felt the road was not wet enough for that particular choice.
Ford
Colin McRae was at the centre of a frightening moment four kilometres into SS10 when his Ford Focus crashed off the road. The Scot was believed to be unconscious and trapped in the car for a while before the rescue services freed him. Happily he was soon walking around and talking to the medical personnel but it was felt wise to take him by helicopter to hospital in Bastia for examination. McRae's team mate Carlos Sainz brushed the rear of his car against a wall on today's opening stage and the third Martini Focus, driven by Piero Liatti, reported both brake problems and a recurrence of the fault with Ford's development semi-automatic gearshift system.
Subaru
Any hopes that Richard Burns may have had that he could strike back on this morning's wet roads were dashed by a poor time on the opening stage, almost a second per kilometre slower than Gilles Panizzi's pace-setting Peugeot. "I don't know what the problem is," he explained after the stage. "It's just very frustrating." Team mate Simon Jean-Joseph was quicker than Burns on that wet stage and then moved up to sixth place behind the Englishman when Tommi Makinen hit trouble on the dry SS9, both Subaru crews benefiting one stage later from Colin McRae's dramatic retirement.
Mitsubishi
Tommi Makinen's slim chances of winning this year's FIA World Rally Championship looked to be slipping even further away when he hit a big rock on the second of today's five stages. The impact smashed the front-right wheel rim, pulled off a brake pipe and also snapped part of the suspension. Makinen and co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki were able to repair the damage after the stage.
SEAT
SEAT's woes continued this morning with Didier Auriol reporting clutch problems on the opening stage and power steering worries on the second. "It stiffened up a couple of times during the early part of the stage," he said. "It seems we are losing time going uphill and gaining it again coming down" Toni Gardemeister took things easily on the opening stage but was still suffering gearbox problems on SS9 and SS10.
Hyundai
The Hyundai team enjoyed a trouble-free morning and Alister McRae was able to set better times after mechanics made some minor adjustments to the Accent WRC at the first service opportunity. It was perhaps fortunate that SS10 was run as a liaison section following the accident involving Colin McRae as Alister was naturally worried about his elder brother's health. To drive competitively under those circumstances would not have been easy.
Other teams
Hamed Al Wahaibi (Arab World team) continued to lead the FIA Teams Cup competition this afternoon but his only rival, Sercan Yazici (Team Atakan) was just one place behind in the rally's overall classification. Manfred Stohl seems to be in command of the Group N situation with well over one minute's lead over his FIA Championship rival Gustavo Trelles. Third place was held by Jean-Marie Santoni who was delayed this morning and lost second place to the four-time champion from Uruguay. The FFSA Junior Team has been proving its potential at FIA World Rally Championship level with Sebastian Loeb in 10th outright in his Toyota Corolla and Fabrice Morel lying in 12th in his Peugeot 206WRC.
Tyre facts
Michelin
In both the wet conditions early this morning, then in the fast drying stages later in the day, Michelin's partners continued to dominate the stage time sheet to pull further clear at the front today. The Michelin TA intermediate pattern proved the fastest choice in the damp while the Michelin N2 dry weather tyre repeated it's stage winning performance in the dry this afternoon.
Pirelli
Pirelli crews used the RE intermediate tyre (with additional hand cuts) for the opening stage today before reverting to the RP dry weather tyre for the remainder of the day's stages.
Text Provided By FIA
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