The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of François Delecour and Daniel Grataloup survived the punishing Cyprus Rally, round 5 of the World Rally Championship, returning to Limassol in 13th position this afternoon. Lancer Evolution WRC team-mates Alister McRae/David Senior and Jani Paasonen/Arto Kapanen found themselves on a long list of retirees, the Britons out with a broken gearbox and the Finns with broken steering.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
F. Delecour / D. Grataloup
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Marcus Gronholm claimed his first win of the season, rewarding Peugeot with its fourth consecutive victory this year, an outstanding performance by the French manufacturer. With team-mate Richard Burns inching ahead of Tommi Makinen in the closing stages, the team again takes a resounding one-two, also for the fourth time this season. In the Drivers’ Championship, Gronholm extends his lead to 11 points and Peugeot has romped ahead in the series for Manufacturers claiming a 41 point advantage.
The Cyprus Rally has decimated the field of entrants and, of the original 60 competitors, just 33 took the restart in Limassol this morning and only 32 made it to the finish. Having experienced a severe winter, the Cypriot roads have been rougher than previous years and, with the rally now held in April rather than June, rain has also been a feature. Yesterday, torrential downpours turned previously dry stages into ones awash with thick mud, running water and big watersplashes and, while the sun shone again this morning, the roads still bore the scars. Whatever the weather, local fans mixed with holidaymakers, braving the elements to witness the stars in action, many of whom battled on with mechanical failures. The crews have also had an unprecedented amount of rolls, cars tipping onto their roofs in the deep ruts on slow corners, struggling back to service with significant bodywork damage and making the slick rally paddock look like a vehicle graveyard.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC
Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart
F. Delecour / D. Grataloup
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The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crew of François Delecour and Daniel Grataloup were one of the few to pick their way through the stages unscathed, incurring just one puncture in the first three stages and 40.94 competitive kilometres. Having swept the roads clean this morning, the French crew were then able to mount a more serious assault this afternoon on the repeated stages, fourth fastest time in stage 18 underlining their earlier handicap, before the rain came.
"It’s been a very difficult rally and I think if we hadn’t had the problem yesterday with the wipers not working in the heavy rain, we could comfortably have been in the top ten", said François. "During the course of the event we’ve learned a lot about the car, which has given us good knowledge and experience for Argentina, Acropolis and the Safari, and hopefully we’ll eliminate the problems and show that the car is competitive".
Adding to his comments, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Derek Dauncey said: "When we got some clear stages we had some competitive times, but then we had some technical problems and had to work round these during the event. Jani was doing well, but it was unfortunate he slid wide and paid the price for a small mistake. It was extremely unfortunate to have Alister retire as a result of quite a large impact on the front of the car which broke the gearbox, either caused by hitting something or landing heavily after a jump. François carried on determinedly and was almost rewarded with a top ten finish. Overall it’s a disappointing result, but we’ve learned a lot about the car on gravel and will go to Argentina with a revised specification for the test".
Meanwhile...
Colin McRae’s hopes of a second consecutive victory in Cyprus started to end when he rolled his Focus in stage 16, damaged the steering and lost the power assistance in stage 17. The Scot, who claimed the lead on stage 4, then threw away second position with a bigger roll in stage 18 dropping him down the leaderboard to seventh. Conditions were however tricky this afternoon, rainfall resulting in a lottery on start positions. Behind victor Marcus Grönholm, team-mate Richard Burns powered past Tommi Mäkinen (Subaru) in stage 18, the weather marginally favouring the Briton. As a consequence, Peugeot claimed another one-two and Burns took six points for the second consecutive event. With a 14 second cushion going into the final nine kilometre stage, Mäkinen’s position was relatively safe and the Finn finished on the podium in third and got to the finish of a rally for the first time in four events. Harri Rovanperä brought his 206 WRC to the finish in fourth position, one minute ahead of Norway’s Petter Solberg, the Subaru driver rolling earlier in the day but still managing to overhaul Armin Schwarz (Hyundai) for fifth position in the closing stages. From his seventh position, Colin McRae powered into sixth on the final stage, claiming points for himself and Ford, albeit a grim reward after leading the event for 11 consecutive stages. Armin Schwarz’s seventh position gave Hyundai the final manufacturer point. Markko Märtin (Ford) has set an impressive pace, claiming the lead in a World Championship rally (after SS3) for the first time in his career, but the Estonian also hit problems today and, like McRae, rolled in stage 16 and lost the power steering. Kenneth Eriksson was in the lead Skoda, the Swede and co-driver Tina Thörner returning to Limassol in ninth position having damaged the right rear wheel and brakes, also in stage 16. Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot’s fourth driver, finished 10th with Carlos Sainz (Ford) 11th.
Coming next...
The FIA World Rally Championship now makes the long journey to South America for Rally Argentina (16-19 May), the only event hosted in the Americas and the second of five consecutive gravel rallies. It is another rough event, albeit faster than Cyprus, and Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart will be conducting a four-day test prior to the recce for regular drivers François Delecour and Alister McRae.
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