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RALLY
NEWS NO.6
Swansea…Saturday
10.45..still raining…
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 (RHEOLA 1)
1st (5) Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford WRC) 1.48.10.2
2nd (10) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Peugeot WRC) 1.48.42.7
3rd (3) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Subaru WRC) 1.49.05.2
4th (6) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford WRC) 1.49.34.9
5th (1) Tommi Makinen/Risto Mannisenmaki (Lancer) 1.49.39.3
6th (7) Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet (SEAT WRC) 1.49.44.3
7th (4) Juha Kankkunen/Juha Repo (Subaru WRC) 1.50.08.7
8th (9) Francois Delecour/Daniel Grataloup (Peugeot WRC) 1.50.12.7
9th (19) Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (Peugeot WRC) 1.50.28.7
10th (21) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Corolla) 1.50.37.6
11th (17) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilaien (SEAT WRC) 1.51.21.6
12th (15) Alister McRae/Dave Senior (Accent) 1.51.49.1
Colin McRae was fastest through the long and difficult Rheola
test, but by just 0.1 of a second from Richard Burns, with Marcus
Gronholm 3rd fastest a further 14s back. Panizzi had a
good run to be 4th quickest, just a blink of an eyelid down on
his Peugeot team mate. Kankkunen was 5th fastest with Rovanpera,
happy now with the response and feeling of his SEAT engine, 6th
quickest. McRae took time out to say "It was a good
stage for us, we went reasonably hard, there was some rain, some
changes in grip and some rocks, but it was OK. I'm quite happy
with my pace, but I'm sure Richard is pushing 100%. He
has to do the catching up. It is easy to make mistakes on these
roads even at 95%". Burns reported no problems, Gronholm
said he was a little cautious towards the end. Sainz found
the stage quite difficult with the rain and very slippy.
Interestingly, Colin McRae and Carlos were on exactly the same
tyre choice, but Colin's were much more worn after the same mileage.
Tommi Makinen had an uncomfortable Rheola stage, about 10kms
in after a hairpin right and into a square left his Lancer ran
wide and crunched the front spoiler and intercooler. This
led to a reduction in power towards stage finish. Didier Auriol
continues to do a superb job for SEAT, and said "OK, no
big problems, but the car felt strange for the last 4kms, I don't
lose much, maybe 2/3 seconds". Markko Martin also
reported some strange feeling towards the end of that stage,
he thought he had a rear puncture, there were some clanking noises
and he slowed down, but there was no puncture. Gilles Panizzi
who suffered a stage 7 puncture yesterday and had to swop the
assymetric tyres around before the went into stage 8, said about
this morning "I don't take risks in fog". Toni
Gardemeister arrived in service with his SEAT front screen damaged
- the bonnet blew open 1km into the 31km Rheola test, Toni stopped
and fastened it down, but it blew up again 1km from the end,
so he just kept going flat out for the finish, peering under
and round the flapping yellow sheet of metal. Co-driver
Paavo Lukander then used his boot laces to tie the bonnet down
to get here to service. Alister McRae still finds his Accent
wearing the front tyres much faster than the rears which would
indicate some problem with setup. Alister saying "It feels
OK but we're just not quick enough". Petter Solberg
had his intercom break at the start of stage 10. Phil Mills screaming
the pace notes like mad through the stage, but sometimes Petter
still could not hear the instructions. Armin Schwarz had some
wiper troubles. After stage 9, Mark Higgins in the Astra
was up to 22nd and leading 2wd, just over 30s ahead of his team
mate Wearden. Stohl continues to lead gpN is 21st, Trelles 2nd,
Backlund 3rd, Ferreyros 4th. More news later..BRIAN
AND LIZ PATTERSON |
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