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FIA RALLY: 56th Network Q Rally of Great Britain, Leg 2 Report

26 November 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Today's second leg of the Network Q Rally GB may only have had six stages but five of them were long, including the longest of the event. Conditions remained tricky and saw the battle for supremacy move into top gear with Colin McRae the first to crack, rolling his Ford Focus on SS12 and being unable to continue, leaving Marcus Gronholm and Richard Burns locked in an intense battle. Burns took the lead on SS13 but with Gronholm currently second, championship victory is still looking the Peugeot driver's way.

Subaru

Richard Burns launched a furious attack on the leaderboard today in a bid to close on that vital top spot. At the finish of today's first stage he said, "If that wasn't good enough to get us the fastest time then I might as well give up now!" He says he's driving at 120% but believed that the long Resolfen stage was the one where this rally would ultimately be decided. "It's the biggest chance for us to get the time back," he said. "I've got enough time to reel in everyone except Colin," he admitted. "However, if I drive any faster than this I'm risking going off the road." In the end it was McRae that went off, leaving Burns just three seconds behind Gronholm after SS12. The Margam Park fans went crazy as Burns scorched into the lead with just tonight's superspecial stage in Cardiff to go before the night halt. Team mate Juha Kankkunen has seen his fair share of wet Rally Great Britain and is not surprised at how difficult it is. "The pace at the front is just like last year," he said. The only way it could be more difficult is if it was snowing!" The third car, driven by Petter Solberg, suffered an intercom failure. Petter is running one place adrift of his brother, Henning, who is waiting at stage finishes to check that his brother is OK.

Peugeot

Marcus Gronholm was delighted to complete SS10. "I was frightened of that stage because that's where I crashed last year," he said. " If Richard catches me then he can go past. He still has to beat Colin and I've no reason to fight either of them." Gronholm and team mate Gilles Panizzi were among several crews fined for speeding last night. Although the offence carried only a GB100 fine, a second infringement would bring a 5 minute penalty and Gronholm could ill- afford that in this crucial championship showdown. On the long stage he admitted to braking far too early. "The brakes were going soft in the middle of the stage so that didn't help my confidence," he said. " We're driving steadily and I'm still not thinking about the championship. Panizzi abandoned his pace notes for the stage as they were too slow. " We had to ignore them and just drive faster," he explained. British 206 WRC prize winner Mark Fisher retired on SS10.

Ford

Rally leader Colin McRae extended that advantage over the opening stages today as Marcus Gronholm took a more cautious approach. "We decided to start quickly this morning and measure our pace against our rivals," said McRae, known for being quick out of the blocks each day. "We're now in a comfortable position and can watch what goes on behind us and adjust our pace accordingly, " he added. "The conditions couldn't be much worse and because this morning's first stage had been used yesterday, it was full of rocks, ruts and big holes. We hit a big puddle on SS11 and the windscreen steamed up for a while. I'm actually enjoying this. I've still got a bit in reserve but that wee bit is kept for special occasions!" He acknowledged that Gronholm was going carefully but warned that you need to drive at a certain speed to maintain concentration. Unfortunately it all came back to haunt him on SS12 when he hit a rut and flipped the car off the road, damaging the radiator and ultimately was forced to retire from the rally on the same stage. Team mate Carlos Sainz was adjusting his car's suspension to adapt to the tougher conditions today while Tapio Laukkanen spent over 30 minutes in a mud-filled ditch after sliding off the road in Rhondda. "All the time we're fighting to keep the car on the road," said Sainz. "We can't match Colin's pace but he's on home ground and it's his rally."

Mitsubishi

Tommi Makinen lost fourth place to Carlos Sainz this morning when the Finn slid off the road and hit a tree. A fuse box had come loose in the car and, although hanging by a wire, managed to get lodged by the brake pedal and caused him some worrying moments in the stage. He tried to push a bit harder on the long stage but spun off. "It was the first tight right hander after the start," he explained. "We went off there and later I had a spin."

SEAT

The SEAT drivers had mixed fortunes in the forests today. Gwyndaf Evans had to retire from the event after clutch failure in the opening stage. "It started to slip two kilometres into the stage but then it seemed to clear before getting worse again," he said. "After 16kms it was impossible to continue." The only person happy about the retirement was co-driver Howard Davies who has a ticket for tomorrow's rugby international between Wales and South Africa! Toni Gardemeister lost time on the next stage because of a silly mistake. He had stopped to adjust the suspension before the stage but failed to close the bonnet properly. It flew open, smashing the windscreen, and forcing him to drive most of the 31.47km stage with almost no visibility and no windscreen wipers. Didier Auriol began the day at the same pace as yesterday but just two kilometres into the longest stage of the event the Cordoba dropped onto two cylinders.

Hyundai

Kenneth Eriksson's co-driver Staffan Parmander had to sacrifice a T-shirt to plug a holed sump in Australia. This time it was Alister McRae's pace note man who has had to brave the chilly weather to stop the leak after the long stage and hope that the problem can be fixed at service. The Accent lost oil pressure halfway through the stage and was found to be leaking badly.

Skoda

Luis Climent finally beat his team mate on the first stage of today, despite reporting steering problems. The car completed the stage with a rear tyre hanging off the rim and he said the problem had been like that for 30% of the stage. Schwarz's time loss was caused by the windscreen wipers locking together. "They broke right at the start of the stage and so I could hardly see. I'm really angry," he said.

Other teams

Manfred Stohl continued to dominate the Group N contest today with Gustavo Trelles seemingly unable to do anything about the Austrian who started this event with a one point Championship lead. "I can't relax yet," he said after SS10. "I'm leading by 40s but that could all change with a puncture." However the title race was effectively laid to rest on the next stage when Trelles lost a huge amount of time with two front punctures and fell to over 14 minutes behind the Austrian. F2 leader Mark Higgins' 800 jack broke when he was trying to change wheels before SS10 and so he had to run on shot tyres. Neil Wearden has been able to close the gap despite soaring water temperature and took the lead when Higgins slipped into a ditch on Margam.

Tyre Facts

Michelin: The slightly warmer conditions (up to 11C) have had no significant effect on the second day as far as tyre choice is concerned. Michelin's WRC partners have continued to use either the Michelin ZA or the narrower, more open-patterned Michelin ZE16 (developed essentially for optimising grip in muddy conditions). Ford's pair stayed with the latter choice throughout the day, while all the teams switched to this option for the final group of stages (SS12 & 13) which has been described as the muddiest of the event.

Pirelli: Once again the Pirelli crews have relied completely on various evolutions of the KM6 tyre. Richard Burns has taken three fastest times on the five stages held so far today (one stage remains tonight) to take the rally lead. The KM tyre has been chosen for its wide ranging performance and is ideally suited to dealing with the slippery mud on top of a harder base layer as well as badly damaged stages being used for the second time.

Text Provided By FIA

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