Rallye Sanremo 1999
Sunday 10 October
COMMUNIQUE 1

MITSUBISHI BIDS FOR REPEAT SUCCESS ON SANREMO RALLY

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart has high hopes of repeating its 1998 victory on Italy’s Sanremo Rally, the 12th round of the 1999 FIA World Rally Championship, as Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Tommi Makinen battles to retain his world title and Mitsubishi Carisma GT driver Freddy Loix returns to the scene of some of his best performances.

Motorsport runs in the blood in Italy and quite rightly, Sanremo has been part of the World Championship from the outset. The demanding roads that snake through the mountains above the elegant Riviera resort might have been created with rallying in mind and huge crowds will throng every vantage point on the densely wooded mountainsides. The likelihood of fine weather during the rally can only swell the crowds.

Finn Tommi Makinen is just as quick on asphalt as he is on loose surfaces and he revels in the challenge that Sanremo offers. Recent testing has made the Lancer Evolution more effective and he has high hopes of winning the rally for the second year running.

"We had a good recce and a good shakedown. The car is really excellent after our testing and I don’t feel any pressure for the championship. I am in a better position than last year", Makinen declared

Belgian team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets look sure to offer Makinen strong support, as they have a fine record in Italy and Loix’s confidence has been boosted by recent testing in the Michelin-shod Carisma GT.

"I’m really pleased to have had more testing and my own engineer for the next few rallies. Support like that from the team is a real boost for a driver. I have a good base set-up for the car now and I am looking forward to this rally", Loix said

Mitsubishi has high hopes of achieving yet more success in the Group N production category, in which the Lancer Evolution and the Carisma GT are the cars to beat. No fewer than 24 of the 120 starters are in Mitsubishis - a remarkable proportion. Uruguay’s Gustavo Trelles looks on course for a fourth successive world Group N title - all of them taken with Mitsubishi - but he faces stiff opposition from the likes of fellow Mitsubishi man Hamed Al Wahaibi, who has been one of the stars of the season so far and won in Catalunya.

"It’s sure to be a tough battle, but this is the home event for my team, Ralliart Italia, so I would like to win for them", Trelles said

The first leg is the shortest of the rally and consists of six stages, totalling 105 kilometres, on classic mountain roads in the Liguria region, close to the French border.