The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart pairing of Tommi Makinen and Risto Mannisenmaki suffered a frustrating setback during the second leg of Rally Argentina and finished the day in fifth position. Team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets have maintained eighth overall but are fighting hard to improve their position in the fifth round of the world series.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
T. Makinen / R. Mannisenmaki
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Mitsubishi Motors drivers continue to lead the Group N production car category with the top three positions. Local man Gabriel Pozzo has a significant advantage in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, with Gustavo Trelles holding second in the group.
The second day of Rally Argentina dawned bright, cold and frosty but, as the sun began to break through, conditions developed into a perfect autumn day. Today’s route took the remaining 47 contenders more than 110 kilometres to the south of Cordoba for six fast and flowing stages based around the town of Santa Rosa de Calamuchita, before returning for a short stage on the outskirts of Cordoba. Spectators were again out in their thousands, lining the stages and eagerly listening to the radio to keep abreast of the world-class action and they were not disappointed as Ford’s Colin McRae continued to set the pace at the head of the field. Some of the leading crews have again experienced difficulties, Peugeot’s Didier Auriol and Marcus Gronholm, along with Makinen, faring worst with turbo and differential problems respectively. In a bizarre sequence of events, the two Skoda Octavia world rally cars of Bruno Thiry and Armin Schwarz were forced into retirement when an emergency vehicle toppled onto their competition cars while they were waiting at a time control. With the additional injury of its engineering director in the same incident, Skoda is not continuing its assault on Rally Argentina.
After a fine performance yesterday, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Tommi Makinen was set for an all-out assault this morning, however the Finn dropped over a minute and a half in the first three stages when he lost drive to one of the rear wheels. The wrong tyres for the proceeding three stages left the Finn struggling for grip but, despite all this, he moved up into fifth position, benefiting from Gronholm’s differential problems, and finished the day with fastest time on the short 4.2 kilometre stage.
"In the middle of the first stage the left rear drive-shaft came out of the differential", said Tommi. "We couldn’t fix it properly before the next stage, but managed to push it back in place using the jack and a stone before the last of these three stages. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but we think maybe the flange was broken. I then forgot to switch off the diff locking switch", he added, "which made the car very difficult to drive. That was my mistake. We then made a big mistake with our tyre choice by taking the hardest compound and really struggled for grip and spent most of the time sideways. Today has not been so good, so we must start again tomorrow and see what happens".
Mitsubishi Carisma GT
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
F. Loix / S. Smeets
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Team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets have maintained their overnight eighth in the Mitsubishi Carisma GT and have been pushing hard to try and improve their position. The Belgians have experienced no major problems today, however, like Makinen, they were on the wrong tyres for the second group of three stages. "Today’s been going quite well otherwise, I’ve been driving better than I was yesterday and I’ve had a bit better luck", said Freddy. "I’ve been building up my speed and doing some final tuning with the car and will try to make progress tomorrow and get in front of Francois".
Gabriel Pozzo thrilled his home supporters by maintaining his overnight Group N lead amid stiff opposition. He has nearly three and a half minutes in hand and, although he has continued flat out to consolidate his lead, he is all too aware this event can throw up surprises at the last minute
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N
G. Pozzo / D. Stillo
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"The car has been very good today", he stated. "The roads have been fine as well, not too rough, and I’ve still been driving flat out. I slow down maybe tomorrow".
Mitsubishi’s four-times Group N World Champion Gustavo Trelles has resigned himself to a supporting role and is now focused on reaching the finish and picking up valuable points in his Lancer Evolution.
"Everything’s been ok today, but I’m not trying to catch Pozzo, he’s too far ahead so it’s better to concentrate on getting to the finish", said Gustavo.
Third in the category is another Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Marcos Ligato. The Argentine, who led for most of yesterday’s leg, lost more time today with a broken shock absorber, but has more than a minute in hand to his nearest rival.
"We’ve had some problems with the rear suspension but basically the car’s been very good. It’ll be difficult to catch Gustavo, but we’ll see what happens", he stated.
The final leg of Rally Argentina takes the crews to the southwest of the host city for the concluding six stages and 118 competitive kilometres. The day’s action is however sure to throw up more surprises, the last two stages in particular renowned for being the roughest and toughest of the event.
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