FIA RALLY: VRally de France - 44th Tour De Corse, Final Report
2 October 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
The FIA World Rally Championship is now down to four drivers, with
three events still to run following the Tour de Corse-Rallye de
France. A dominant 1-2 result for Peugeot allowed the leaderboard
to close up again as championship leader Marcus Gronholm took fifth
place. Richard Burns is just two points behind the Finn while the
Ford drivers Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz complete the leading quartet
with just five points covering these top four place. Over today's six
stages, a repeat of Friday's opening leg, Ford was able to extend its
lead in the manufacturers' championship with Peugeot climbing into
second place ahead of Subaru. The FIA World Rally Championship now
moves a short distance across the Mediterranean to San Remo for the
final asphalt event of the season before the championship concludes
with gravel events in Australia and Great Britain.
Peugeot
Despite the fact that Gilles Panizzi was leading Franois Delecour by less than a second after today's first two stages, when challenger Carlos Sainz lost a minute and the possibility of continuing the fight, Peugeot team director Corrado Provera told his drivers to hold station to the finish. "I have told both drivers that the positions are not to change and that Gilles is to win," he said. "Gilles has driven a fantastic rally and deserves his first WRC victory while we are really happy to take our first 1-2." Panizzi's only problem today was the delay before starting SS14, that saw him lose his rhythm, while Delecour said that he felt good and really wanted to win. "I'll have to let Gilles win if I am told to but I don't like team orders. I don't understand why we must do this because it is not sport," he said before beating his team mate on the next stage to retake the lead! Over the final two stages he backed off to comply with the orders. Marcus Gronholm was finding it easy to set quick times today on stages he was now driving for a second time (today is a repeat of Friday's opening leg). "Marcus has astonished everyone with his speed here," said Provera. "He started steadily but today he's up to his usual speed."
Ford
Colin McRae, who crashed out of the rally yesterday, spent a comfortable night in Bastia hospital and was expected to fly home to Scotland later today. Ford motorsport director Martin Whitaker explained today that the team would assess McRae's physical and mental condition in the next few days before making a decision on whether he will be fit enough to tackle the San Remo Rally. McRae (who has a double fracture of his cheek bone and a bruised lung) promised that he would be fit in time! Carlos Sainz came close to losing third place on today's second stage when his power steering failed. He dropped almost a minute to fourth placed Richard Burns but hung on to his position and was able to have the problem fixed at service immediately after the stage. "Luckily it was quite slippery and so not so hard to drive without power-steering," he explained. The third entered driver, Piero Liatti, accomplished to his duty with a valuable sixth place.
Subaru
Richard Burns has again endured a day of mysterious performance. "I really don't know why I'm not setting faster times. I just can't have tried hard enough on the first stage today but I pushed hard all through SS13 and still couldn't get it right," he said. "It seems that we're quite close to the Peugeots and Fords halfway through the stages but then we lose the time on the second half. It's a mystery because the car doesn't feel like there's anything getting worse. My biggest worry now is that Marcus [Gronholm] will catch me. It's only his first visit here but he seems to be learning very quickly!" Burns, however, responded to the threat by setting his first fastest time of the day (and only his second of the event) on SS15 and again on SS16.
SEAT
Didier Auriol was considerably quicker today than on the same stages during the first leg and was able to regularly set top six times. "I've made some changes to the differentials," he said. "The car is now a lot easier to drive but I have been saving my tyres to make sure that I can attack on the downhill sections at the end of the stages." He rounded off the event with second fastest on the final stage. Team mate Toni Gardemeister stuck to his rally-long plan of driving for a finish on his Corsican debut and was therefore not overly concerned to be caught and passed by both Patrice Morel and Sebastien Loeb although he #missed out on tenth place by just 0.1s.
Hyundai
The Hyundai Castrol team has reverted to test session mode today in a bid to cure the understeer that has hampered Alister McRae's progress throughout the event. "We have decided to use today as an asphalt test in preparation for San Remo," said a team spokesman.
Mitsubishi
Just 1.5kms into today's opening stage, Mitsubishi's presence in the rally was over. Tommi Makinen crashed off the road and became the day's first retirement, ironically on the same stage that claimed team mate Freddy Loix two days ago. The stage was halted for some time while a photographer was treated for injuries (a broken pelvis and broken rib) sustained when Makinen crashed. The Finn still has a mathematical chance of retaining his FIA World Championship, but he is now in fifth place and with an 18 points gap from the leader.
Other teams
Teams Cup leader Sercan Yazici (Team Atakan) retired from the rally this morning after hitting something and losing a wheel. It left Hamed Al Wahaibi (Arab World team) to an unchallenged victory that takes the Subaru driver into fourth place in the championship. Manfred Stohl's Group N victory sees the Austrian extend his lead over second placed Gustavo Trelles who remains in contention for a record fifth consecutive FIA crown.
Tyre facts
Michelin
The stage-winning performance of Michelin's tyres in both dry and wet conditions (respectively with the firm's N 'FP' and TA patterns) took Michelin to its twelfth Corsican success since 1985 and its sixth consecutive clear asphalt win since the 1998 San Remo Rally. Michelin drivers were fastest on fourteen of the French round's seventeen stages.
Pirelli
Today's stages were mainly dry and so the Pirelli crews stayed faithful to the RP5 tyre. Richard Burns set two fastest times (SS15 and SS16) to fend off the challenge of Marcus Gronholm and close the points gap to the championship leader.
Text Provided By FIA
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