The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crews of Tommi Makinen/Risto Mannisenmaki and Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets finished Rally Argentina - the fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship - in fourth and sixth positions respectively. Gabriel Pozzo made history for Mitsubishi Motors today however when he powered his Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution to category victory. In doing so, the Argentina notched up Mitsubishi’s 20th consecutive victory, underlying its crushing domination of this showroom category.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart T. Makinen / R. Mannisenmaki

Colin McRae took outright victory in the Ford Focus having dominated from the outset and, after an appalling run of bad luck this season, the Scot finally has points on the board. However, Makinen’s three points keep him at the head of the Drivers’ Championship with a five point advantage over Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard overcoming intense pain from a trapped nerve in his back. With both the Finn and team-mate Freddy Loix scoring valuable points, Mitsubishi continues to dominate the series for makes with the Championship-winning Lancer Evolution. Remarkably, given the level of competition, both Mitsubishi and Makinen have never lost a grip on the advantage they established at the season-opener in Monte Carlo.

Rally Argentina is always one of the most spectacular and popular events in the series, the South Americans fanatical about their motorsport. They take to the hills in their thousands, camping out overnight in sub-zero temperatures to secure the best vantage points and few will have been disappointed by the world-class action. River crossings and water splashes abound and in fact few fell victim to more than 60 during an event watched by an estimated three-quarters of a million spectators. The decisive leg took the remaining 39 contenders to the southwest of the Cordoba rally base for six stages and, although the route was the shortest of the three days, it is renowned for being the toughest and roughest in the whole of the series.

More of the leading contenders hit problems today, including Francois Delecour who suffered at the hands of his Focus’ engine and throttle, Petter Solberg who lost time with intermittent power steering failure, and reigning World Champion Marcus Gronholm, who was forced into his fourth retirement of the season after going off the road and breaking the clutch while trying to regain the track. Team-mate Didier Auriol, and Hyundai’s Kenneth Eriksson also both retired having lost wheels. The Mitsubishi crew of Makinen and Mannisenmaki did not escape unscathed either, the Finns lucky to maintain position when a radiator leak and spin hampered their charge early this morning. Aided by Solberg’s problems, the former World Champions inched into fourth, but had no chance of improving their position unless any of the three leading crews ran into trouble.

Mitsubishi Carisma GT Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart F. Loix / S. Smeets

"I don’t know exactly how we got the leak in the radiator, although we landed quite heavily after a jump", said Tommi. "We were lucky to make it to service with no big problems. The other stages were fine and it’s just a shame the second leg was such a disaster for us; this is the best we could do. At least it’s important to score points and from here we go to Cyprus, where we’ve already had a good test".

Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets have maintained a consistent performance to finish sixth overall in their Carisma GT. The Belgian duo suffered with an ill-handling car this morning, but changes to the differential mapping helped them move up the leaderboard from their overnight eighth position. A point, in only his third outing in South America, is a fitting finale to Freddy’s 50th World Championship rally.

"After my bad luck on the first day my hope was a little bit gone", commented Freddy. "I caught a stone on the first stage and then rolled later, so it was a bad start to my rally. I tried to stay cool and we kept on running to get some points, so I’m happy about that".

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N G. Pozzo / D. Stillo