The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets finished 12th in Rallye Sanremo, an event dominated by the French manufacturers who historically excel and develop cars on asphalt. As predicted, the event was won by one such car, the Peugeot of Gilles Panizzi, the Frenchman also winning here last year in similar machinery. Four-times FIA World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen and co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki retired in the penultimate stage while in a point-scoring position for Mitsubishi

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

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Gabriel Pozzo claimed the FIA World Cup for Drivers of Production Cars today (subject to FIA confirmation), becoming the first Argentinean driver to command such an accolade. The Cordoba-based driver finished second, taking enough points to secure the Cup and award Mitsubishi it’s seventh consecutive World title.

"It’s a fantastic result, I can’t believe it!" said an elated Gabriel. "We’ve pushed hard all year and the car has been brilliant - 26 consecutive Group N victories by Mitsubishi drivers proves that! Today has not been easy and we have been very careful. It has not been our best rally this year, but the end result is the most important thing".

In the FIA World Rally Championship, Gilles Panizzi’s win has little bearing on the fight for the drivers’ crown and with the leaderboard awash with crews not in the title race, Tommi Makinen maintains his lead, equal with Colin McRae, with three of the 14 rounds remaining. Carlos Sainz was in fact the only driver to benefit, the Spaniard’s three points moving him into third position ahead of Richard Burns who retired in Italy. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Mitsubishi has also maintained its second position, Loix picking up one point in the debut outing of the Lancer Evolution WRC.

Of the original 73 competing crews, only 47 took the re-start for the final leg this morning. The route, again high up in the hills above the coastal town of Sanremo, took the contenders over four stages and 87.66 competitive kilometres and, while it was the shortest of the three legs, there was no respite for the crews as they jostled for the final positions. Clouds moved in today and temperatures dropped, rain and fog falling in the mountains making tyre choice critical, visibility difficult and surfaces even less predictable. Despite the weather however, the fanatical Italians revelled in the high-speed action, cheering their heroes all the way.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart F. Loix / S. Smeets

Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets moved up the leaderboard into 12th position this morning, overhauling Peugeot’s Harri Rovanpera after two of the four stages. They were then passed again by the Finn and, following Makinen’s retirement, remained 12th overall.

"The car had good grip in the wet, but then it rained so heavily in the last two stages that a lot of water came into the car", said Freddy. "The windows steamed up and we had to take it steadily to get the car back to Sanremo. For sure this hasn’t been the easiest rally. You might think I have reason to be disappointed, but I’ve been involved in the development of brand new cars before and it always takes time to get where you want to be. But we’ve learned an enormous amount here and you can’t expect to win straight away. The times have improved, and there are things to be positive about".

After a difficult event with the new Lancer Evolution WRC, Tommi Makinen made progress this morning and the Finn was fifth fastest through the opening stage, narrowing the gap to Colin McRae. With two stages remaining, he was within eight seconds of overhauling the Ford driver until he hit a wall, knocked the front left wheel off and was forced into retirement with less than 30 kilometres to contest.

"The car has improved throughout the event, but it’s still been a difficult rally for us", said Tommi. "There was a lot of fog in stage 15, it was difficult to see and we hit a stream of water and knocked the front end on a wall. We have ideas of things we want to try in Corsica and now we must look ahead positively. Sure, we wanted to score points here but we try to improve for the next event".

Adding to their comments, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Derek Dauncey said: "It’s fair to say we did well on this rally with the short amount of testing, and the stage times today are what we would like to have seen from the outset. With such a strong entry from asphalt experts, drivers and manufacturers alike, no one has really found it easy to keep apace of them, but our general reliability is there and we have improvements to the car to take it another step forward in Corsica".

Mitsubishi Carisma GT Gr.N A. Fiorio / E. Cantoni

Mitsubishi Motors drivers stormed to a 26th consecutive victory in the Group N production class, an incredible feat. While Mitsubishi success had been anticipated, an electrifying duel between Italy’s Alex Fiorio in his Mitsubishi Carisma GT, entered by Mitsubishi Motors Automobili Italia, and Uruguay’s Gustavo Trelles in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was resolved only on the penultimate stage, when Trelles crashed in atrocious weather conditions, leaving Fiorio to score a conclusive victory.

Alex Fiorio was the first Group N World Champion and he proved his worth with a scintillating drive in his Carisma GT, bouncing back to win after losing his overnight lead to Trelles on the first two stages of the last leg.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N G. Pozzo / D. Stillo, winners of the 2001 Gr.N World Cup (Subject to FIA confirmation)