Review of Day 2 - preview of last day - Rally Finland
author: Leon Botha
The second day of Rally Finland contained all the ingredients one would expect of an event of this magnitude and intensity.
The one factor, if we have to lift one aspect out, that stood out was the performance of Markko Märtin.
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Goodness gracious me! There are a couple of four letter words needed to describe this!
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He started off yesterday morning leading the rally by the smallest of margins from the best driver in the business Marcus Grönholm, who was closely followed by the current leader on the championship board, Richard Burns.
In short, this young man first withstood everything Marcus aimed at him, and then Marcus hit a rock in SS14, although he denied hitting anything, that damaged the Peugeot’s front suspension so badly that he had to withdraw.
The Grönholm attack was immediately replaced by a dedicated assault launched by teammate Richard Burns who drove the second Peugeot 206 WRC, but again the young Estonian withstood the attack in his Ford Focus, despite having serious electrical problems.
Remember last year, this time, when we said that the Peugeots were in a rally on their own, in 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions?
Remember when we doubted Colin Wilson, motorsport boss of Ford’s wisdom, even sanity when he let both Sainz and McRae go, in favour of two “inexperienced” youngsters – Martin and Duval?
Wilson must be laughing his arse right off! In modesty, (probably sarcastically) he said at the beginning of the year that they would like to win an event or two this year and only go full out for the championship, next year.
Remember when we all had a bit of a giggle when the new 2003 WRC Ford appeared without any sponsor logos on it, pure white? Telefonika having moved with Sainz to Citroën.
The rally is far from over, but with a lead of 1m13s over his nearest rival, the pressure must be slightly off from this young Estonian, and he may be able to drive at only 112% instead of 120% to stay ahead of the pack - and still win stages!
The Big Fight is going to be for second place today, Sunday 10th August 2003, the last day of Rally Finland 2003.
Nothing happens in slow motion on this rally, and the odds are simply too high for a pack of drivers chasing at average speeds in excess of 130km/h through stages, not to make mistakes, and when they do, small mistakes, turn into big accidents.
Colin McRae made one of those small mistakes and landed a number of metres times 10, from the places where he made the mistake, half upside down against some trees. He and navigator Ringer were ok, but the Citroën needs to be buried.
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"When he clocked us in a minute too early, that's nothing. When I brake one second too late, that's a dissaster!"
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Ringer made an unforgivable mistake when he cocked Colin in, ONE MINUTE EARLY! This is the second time this year a WRC navigator has done that. This cost Carlos Sainz an almost definite win, and now probably was a large factor in McRae’s accident.
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See what I mean?
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When Colin said before the stage “mistakes do happen. There is nothing we can do about it now, except get on with our job” – what he really meant was that “Ringer is an arsehole, I will now have to drive mine off to make up the time, the idiot cost us” and then he went along and almost took both arses off.
Burns is in 2nd position just over a minute behind Markko, but that is not his problem, Carlos is only .2 of a second – that is about how long it takes to blink an eye, behind Richard, but then Carlos will be more worried about the fact that a certain Mr Solberg who is known for some serious attacks on the last days of events, in a blue and florescent Yellow Subaru Impreza STi, is right behind him – one and a half blinks or .5 of a second behind him, to tell you the honest truth.
Solberg made his intentions clear when out of the blue, or is that in ol’ Blue, he posted second quickest in SS16 and fastest in SS17. The question is if he will carry the same aggession over to today. Rally drivers will know that any break in rhythm can cause you to lose your momentum. If he is able to take up where he left off, he will be lying in second position overall after the first stage of today, Parkolla – which is 19 kms long and will take place at around 08h00 our time.
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Will Solberg be in Maximum attack mode today? You can bet the left one on it!
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Burns won 2 stages yesterday, posted a 2nd and a 3rd fastest. Grönholm won 2, and came second in 2 before he went home.
Sébastien Loëb could only manage one 3rd fastest, while team mate Colin McRae won 1, came 3rd in three before he hit a tree! Sainz managed a 2nd and a 3rd.
Rovanpera squeezed a 3rd quickest from one stage, while Markko Märtin won only 1, and posted 2nd quickest in 3 of them.
The gaps between positions are almost all still achievable except maybe between 14th and 15th, Schwarz and Latvala, where the gap is 3m 06s and I think the rally kms not enough for a normal change in positions. Loëb will have his work cur out to catch Solberg on a normal day in Finland, as he is trailing by 49 seconds, but he is only 34 ahead of Makinen, who in turn has the bad luck to have two very determined and bloody quick local Finns’ on his tail.
Both Tuohino and Lindholm can post top 5 fastest times through their home town stages, and may just prove to become a serious problem to Herr Makinen.
On the last day of Rally Finland we have 6 stages waiting for the super drivers in their super-super cars.
Finland is GMT +3 according to the organisers – while my diary says +2
SS18 STARTS at 08h56 which is Parkkola 1 and is 19.00km in length.
SS19 STARTS at 09h56 which is Mökkiperä 1 and is 13.38km long
SS20 STARTS at 10h30 which is Palsankylä and is 13.38km long
SS21 STARTS at 12h33 which is Kuohu and is 7.67km long.
SS22 STARTS at 12h57 which is Parkkola 2 and is 19.00km long.
SS23 STARTS at 13h57 which is Mökkiperä 2 and is 13.38km long.
Finish at 15h19 Service Park - Paviljonki
Podium at 15h46 Jyväsklä - Paviljonki
Total leg 3 distance 338.53km
(competitive 97.91km, liaison 240.62km)
Total event distance 1663.66km
(competitive 403.34km, liaison 1260.32km)
So here we go on the last leg of the Finnish Grand Prix!
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