The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of Tommi Makinen and Timo Hantunen finished Rally Australia in sixth position, keeping their Championship aspirations well and truly alive and guaranteeing a thrilling finale in Great Britain. Team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets put in an impressive performance, but ultimately finished 11th after incurring penalties in the second leg.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
T. Makinen / T. Hantunen
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Mitsubishi Motors drivers collected the top four places in the Group N production category with local hero Ed Ordynski leading the way in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Remarkably, it was the 28th consecutive Group N victory for Mitsubishi at World Championship level.
The fight for the world title could barely be tighter and Makinen is right in the thick of it. In a quite unprecedented situation, the Finn has led the series from the season opener in Monte Carlo in January, either outright or jointly, but now concedes it to Scot Colin McRae, albeit by just one point. With McRae leading on 42 points, Makinen hot on his heels with 41 and Richard Burns now also in the fight on 40, the only other driver mathematically capable of winning the title is Carlos Sainz, although the Spaniard is nine points behind McRae. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Rally GB will see a two-horse race between Peugeot and Ford, the rivals split by four points.
Fifty-four crews left the city of Perth early this morning for the final leg of Rally Australia, the penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Based 110 kilometres south-east of Perth at the famous pine plantation, formerly known as Bunnings, the route covered four stages and 105 competitive kilometres over some of the most visually spectacular stages in the series. The weather was again cooler and overcast, however this did little to deter the thousands of spectators who poured into the Sotico complex, scrambling up banks and trees to find the best vantage points to witness what has set up a nail-biting finale to the 2001 season.
Tommi Makinen has done well to power the Lancer Evolution WRC into sixth position, being that this has been the car’s competitive debut on gravel, he has competed with a new co-driver in Timo Hantunen, and also suffered intense muscular pain in his back, a result of his accident in Corsica. The Finns have barely put a foot wrong today, the car hasn’t missed a beat and Makinen is confident about his chances and the car’s potential for the Rally of Great Britain.
"It’s been a difficult rally, especially the first two days, but today was a lot better", said Tommi. "We made some adjustments to the balance yesterday and this improved things and I was happy with the way it handled. We must now obviously concentrate on the Rally GB, and we will do a lot of testing with some news parts, but obviously it’s going to be a huge fight. We will naturally work extremely hard to take the championship with the new car".
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
F. Loix / S. Smeets
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Team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets have performed impressively and would undoubtedly have finished higher up the leaderboard but for more than two minutes of penalties in the second leg. They too have had a trouble-free run today. "It’s been a very good event, I’ve been driving well but it was a shame about the time we lost yesterday", said Freddy. "My road position also made things very difficult, especially today, but we drove flat out and didn’t make any mistakes and that’s the most important thing. The car feels very good, much better than the Group A car and we’re definitely moving in the right direction".
Adding to their comments, chief engineer Bernard Lindauer said: "This is a very encouraging result, the car has improved its pace throughout the event and we are starting to get very close to a good base set-up. We’ve also learned more about how to make further improvements to get even more speed out of the car, and the reliability has been very good. We’re very pleased with the way it’s developing".
Local Group N contender Ed Ordynski had established a useful lead in the first two days of the rally and his Lancer Evolution ran perfectly to give him an amazing eighth category victory on home ground.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N
E. Ordynski / I. Stewart
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"We’ve led most of the way and I’m delighted with the result, but it wasn’t easy. The visitors were really pushing all the way and we had to up our pace to keep a safe lead. I’m glad we made a good start", Ordynski said.
Second place went to 2001 Group N World Champion Gabriel Pozzo, who put in a storming performance in the final leg at the wheel of his Lancer Evolution to win his personal duel with Finn Juha Kangas.
"It has been a real fight all through the rally and I’m very pleased. This is such a difficult rally and it’s important to get experience, but nice to get a result too", Pozzo commented.
Third in Group N went to promising Belgian Francois Duval in a Mitsubishi Carisma GT. He put in a finely judged performance on his first Rally Australia, marking himself out as a driver to watch in future.
"I like the roads, but it’s one of the most difficult rallies I’ve done. This is much better than I expected", Duval said.
Kangas finished fourth after losing time through hitting a tree when neck and neck with Pozzo, while 2000 Group N World Champion Manfred Stohl was a strong sixth, after losing time changing a puncture.
The final round of the 2001 FIA World Rally Championship takes the contenders back to Europe for the Rally of Great Britain (23-25 November) where both world titles will be decided in the Welsh forests around the rally base of Cardiff.
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