The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets brought their Carisma GT to the finish of the 2001 Rally Finland in 10th position, equalling their best result on the most specialised and spectacular event in the FIA World Rally Championship. Nominated team-mates Toni Gardemeister and Paavo Lukander recovered well today after a frustrating event but rolled in the final stage while holding 11th position.
Mitsubishi Carisma GT
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
F. Loix / S. Smeets
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Mitsubishi Motors drivers dominated the Group N production car category once again with Argentine drivers Marcos Ligato and Gabriel Pozzo sensationally beating all the Finns to take first and second places in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. Mitsubishi Carisma GTs and Lancer Evolutions took the top 15 places, recording Mitsubishi’s 24th consecutive Group N victory at World Championship level - a wonderful tribute to the performance and reliability of Mitsubishi’s showroom products.
True to form, the Finns continue to hold on to their domination on home territory and reigning World Champion Marcus Gronholm racked up his first win of the season, claiming points for only the second time this year in the Peugeot. His Peugeot team-mate Harri Rovanpera, who will now be contesting the remaining five events, looked set to finish second until a broken shock absorber dropped him to fourth in the final stage. Britain’s Richard Burns and Colin McRae finished second and third respectively in the Subaru and Ford. Despite not finishing his home event, Tommi Makinen retains the lead in the FIA World Rally Championship, holding a six-point advantage over Colin McRae. And, even though Mitsubishi failed to score points in Finland - and for the first time this year - it too retains the lead, equal with Ford, on 66 points.
Freddy, who started the day 12th, moved up the leaderboard to ninth this morning, overhauling Toyota driver Pasi Hagstrom, and benefiting from the retirement of Francois Delecour, the Ford driver stopping with a lack of fuel pressure on the road section, Juuso Pykalisto being forced out when he went off the road, and Alister McRae having to stop and change a wheel on the Hyundai after a puncture in the first stage. The Belgian has had a trouble-free run today, but was then overtaken by Hagstrom in a final stage showdown that left the rivals just four seconds apart.
Mitsubishi Carisma GT
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
T. Gardemeister / P. Lukander
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"I am happy to finish the rally and I think we set some pretty good times today", said Freddy. "It is so disappointing about the problem yesterday and I still don’t understand what happened with the brakes, and I’m sure that had it not been for this I would be a lot closer and could have had a bit more of a battle with the local drivers. I tried to beat Hagstrom in the final stage, but our steering was out of line having hit a rock earlier, and I didn’t want to take any risks".
Team-mate Toni Gardemeister has had a frustrating rally, suffering with various problems that left him trailing the leaderboard. The Finn hit a rock in the first stage, knocking out the balance of the Carisma GT, and then struggled to get into a flowing rhythm. He did however move up the leaderboard from an overnight 14th to 11th, before crashing out on the final stage of the rally.
"You don’t know how disappointed I am, it is a disaster and I am so sorry", said Toni. "We went over a jump, maybe a little bit too fast for another jump on a turn, and hit some rocks and the car just went into a roll, two or three times. Everything was broken, there was no way to continue. Yesterday the car worked well and I really tried, but we have to look to New Zealand now, for sure it can’t be worse than here. I think I can go very well there and I feel very positive about it and will do my best for the team".
Finnish drivers are particularly hard to beat on home ground, but rough stages towards the end of the rally caused havoc. Marcos Ligato kept his cool to score by far the best result of his career so far, climbing from fifth to first and winning Group N in his Lancer Evolution on his first attempt at the rally.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N
M. Ligato / R. Garcia
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"The stages today were very bad and you had to be very careful. I think I was a bit lucky, but I am very, very happy. This was much better than I hoped before the start", Ligato said.
Second place went to his team-mate Gabriel Pozzo in a similar Lancer Evolution after another superbly judged drive that has extended his World Championship lead.
"Today has been fantastic for us. We changed the gearbox to give more top speed and everything has gone well. The Finnish drivers are very fast, but it is very risky to go so fast on these stages", Pozzo stated.
Kaj Kuistila upheld Finnish pride with a strong third place in his Carisma GT, only half a minute behind Pozzo, with another Finn, Jukka Ketomaki, fourth in a similar car. The overnight leader Jouni Ampuja retired with suspension trouble and his nearest rival at the time, Marko Ipatti, had an accident.
The FIA World Rally Championship contenders now head to the other side of the world for Rally New Zealand (20-23 September). This is another firm favourite of Tommi Makinen’s and the Finn, having won in 1999 in the Lancer Evolution, will again be looking to become the first driver to register 24 World Championship rally victories. His registered team-mate in New Zealand is again Toni Gardemeister who was alongside him on the podium in third position in 1999, and regular Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart Freddy Loix will again be fighting for drivers’ points.
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