Swedish Rally 2000
Saturday 12 February
COMMUNIQUE 3

MITSUBISHI SET TO DOMINATE SWEDISH RALLY

The crews contesting the International Swedish Rally - the second round of the 2000 FIA World Rally Championship - were again faced with mild but wet conditions this morning when they left Karlstad for the longest day of competition. Snow and ice has been mixed with mud, and top speeds are much higher than normal ensuring that stage records have been smashed by a minute or more on some stages. Peugeot driver Marcus Gronholm has continued to control the head of the leaderboard, never losing a grip on the lead he established on stage 2 yesterday. Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Tommi Makinen has powered his way into second position in the Lancer Evolution, setting the scene for a national showdown with his fellow countryman.

Competition over today’s 153 competitive kilometres has been fierce and Makinen and Mannisenmaki have been dicing with Ford rival Colin McRae and Thomas Radstrom in the Toyota Corolla. They set a string of second-fastest times through stages 11, 12 and 13, despite narrowly escaping disaster in the last of these tests, and rounded off the day’s competition with fastest time over the 2 kilometre floodlit super special stage at the Lugnet ski stadium this evening. Few others seem able to match the pace of the leading four and the battle for supremacy is set to continue to the final stage tomorrow afternoon. Two of the World Championship contenders were also forced onto the sidelines today. Carlos Sainz retired on a liaison section when a bolt on the pulley which drives the Focus’ oil pump broke, and a lack of oil pressure halted Toni Gardemeister’s charge in the SEAT.

"The first stage was not so good", said Tommi. "I made some little mistakes and thought there would be better grip. We chose a harder suspension which was also not the best. In stage 13 we went off twice, were very lucky to continue and also broke three wheel rims, although Michelin’s anti-deflation mousse kept the tyres perfectly formed. Marcus is quite far in front, but with 100 kilometres tomorrow we will see what happens - he is very fast though and I think it will be difficult to beat him. Tomorrow’s stages are fast and nice and I like them very much so we definitely go for a full attack as obviously I would like to win".

Mitsubishi Carisma GT driver Freddy Loix has moved up the leaderboard into 10th position. The Belgians have however not felt 100 per cent happy with the transmission system throughout the day and reverted back to yesterday’s gearbox when they arrived at the final service this evening. Freddy nevertheless set sixth fastest time in the penultimate stage of the day and is now less than eight seconds away from overhauling SEAT driver Didier Auriol in eighth position.

"The penultimate stage tonight was better the second time around, but the car is not turning the way I want it", commented Freddy. "We’ll make some changes tonight and hope it goes well tomorrow. We try our best on the last day, especially to get Markko Martin (Toyota) and Didier Auriol (SEAT) behind us".

Mitsubishi crews continue to set the pace in the Group N production class and hold the top ten positions. Finland’s Jani Paasonen is playing a starring role and has a 31.4 second advantage over fellow countryman Juuso Pykalisto. "I decided to change my attitude today and make a big attack and so far it seems to work well!" Paasonen stated.

Pykalisto nevertheless suffered with a broken spark plug early this morning which his crew was unable to repair at the first available service park. "We were obviously down on engine power and lost about 20 second in stage 12", he said.

The formidable Swede Stig-Olov Walfridsson holds a comfortable third position ahead of Manfred Stohl who has driven superbly and without problems to climb to fourth in the category. The Austrian is nevertheless keen to finish and add points to his World Championship lead in these difficult conditions.

Former winner Kenneth Backlund hasn’t driven with his usual assurance and has dropped to sixth. The Swede was also off the road for two minutes in the long Jutbo stage, dropping precious time to his rivals, and then suffered a few spins in the following section. "I think I am trying too hard!" he said. Italian Gianluigi Galli admits that he can’t hope to match the Nordic drivers on only his second visit, but is delighted that his Mitsubishi is proving completely reliable.

The rally’s third leg is a compact loop in Varmland, with 96 kilometres of classic Swedish stages before the finish in Karlstad.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AFTER LEG 2