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RALLY NEWS NO.1
Builth Wells..Friday 08.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 (St. Gwynno)
1st (16) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru WRC) 9.06.7
2nd (5) Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford WRC) 9.10.0
3rd (6) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford WRC) 9.10.2
4th (19) Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (Peugeot WRC) 9.10.6
5th (4) Juha Kankkunen/Juha Repo (Subaru WRC) 9.10.8
6th (1) Tommi Makinen/Risto Mannisenmaki (Lancer) 9.13.3
7th (18) Tapio Laukkanen/Kaj Lindstrom (Ford WRC) 9.14.2
8th (21) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Corolla) 9.14.9
9th (7) Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet (SEAT WRC) 9.14.9
10th (14) Kenneth Eriksson/Staffan Parmander (Accent) 9.15.2
Not in Richard Burns' script was deranging his Subaru's rear
suspension on stage 2 this morning. Richard was making
temporary repairs at the side of the road to keep the Impreza
going. The above leaderboard is after stage 2, early times
from stage 4 indicate that Colin McRae has a 2.2s lead from Marcus
Gronholm, with Carlos Sainz 3rd and Panizzi 4th. Richard
Burns is 1 minute in arrears of Colin McRae.
The rally started with the Cardiff Super Special last night where
Juha Kankkunen and Janne Tuohino tied for the lead, with Carlos
Sainz 3rd, Laukkanen 4th, Solberg 5th and Colin McRae 6th.
The stage was pretty wet and muddy. Many of the lead drivers
got caught on the hop at the stage start lights, not having switched
on their spotlights or active differentials. It takes about
10s for the differentials to build up momentum, so many of the
drivers had huge sideways moments on the first couple of corners.
Several needed new windscreens fitted at Cardiff parc ferme.
On the first stage this morning, St. Gwynno, apart from the dramas
surrounding Richard Burns, Freddy Loix put his Lancer off the
road and out of the rally. Mark Fisher damaged the front
right steering of his Peugeot, lost 2 minutes in the stage and
is going to have great difficulty getting the car through stages
3 and 4 to service here at Builth Wells. Other stories
from stage 2 included Mark Higgins being extremely worried about
his Astra's oil pressure. Alister McRae had a little difficulty
with his Accent's anti lag system not responding properly. Toni
Gardemeister had a turbo pipe come off on the road section, but
was able to get the problem sorted. Marcus Gronholm reported
the stage "slippy but OK". Interestingly after
about 25 cars there was really heavy rain started which affected
the later numbers - Gwyndaf Evans in the SEAT had 7.01.9, Stephen
Finlay (8th overnight) had 7.05.2 as against the fastest which
was Solberg on 6.46.3. In group N after stage 2 Manfred
Stohl led from Backlund with Ramon Ferreyros 3rd.
Unofficial Fastest times stage 3 (Tyle) - Gronholm 5.48.2: Colin
McRae 5.49.5: Richard Burns 5.51.8: Carlos Sainz 5.52.2: Didier
Auriol 5.53.9: Tommi Makinen 5.54.5: Unofficial fastest
times stage 4 (Rhondda) - Marcus Gronholm 14.26.5: Colin McRae
14.29.9: Panizzi 14.42.3: Sainz 14.42.7: Makinen 14.48.0:
Late news - Finnish Junior Team member Janne Tuohino has reportedly
stopped, his Corolla having developed an engine electrical problem
in stage 2.
More late news….Kenneth Eriksson reportedly stopped for
several minutes in stage 4.
More news to follow…BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON |
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