Cyprus Rally 2000
Tommi Makinen continued his assault on Markko Martin on the first stages of the final leg. He won SS 18 and the difference between him and Martin was only 4 secs. Richard Burns had a misfire caused by an electrical problem. He stayed in 4th position, but losing 45 seconds meant that he couldn't challenge Francois Delecour for the third place. Instead, Markko Martin and Tommi Makinen were within half a minute from Burns so there was no room for further problems.
On stage 19 Makinen took over the 5th position, as expected. Burns was fastest on the stage, as well as on SS 20. In the front, McRae was gradually closing the margin to leader Sainz but the difference was still 54 seconds, so with no team orders, Sainz' win seemed certain.
The drivers were just cruising home on the final stages with no real battles in the top 10, and the only question was now if Ford would issue team orders. This never happened, though, so Sainz took quite an unexpected win after total domination of the rally. Colin McRae finished second, 37 secs behind his team-mate. McRae moved into second place in the Championship, just two points below Marcus Gronholm. Burns, who finished fourth in Cyprus, is now third in the points, only one point behind McRae so the situation is extremely tight with four rounds to go.
Third in the rally was Francois Delecour after a solid drive. Tommi Makinen finished 5th; he is falling out of contention in his chase for the 5th consecutive world champion's crown. Markko Martin put on another great result by finishing 6th, in front of Juha Kankkunen, who failed to score points after his rather questionnable time penalties on the second leg.
Despite some minor problems, Cyprus Rally proved to be a worthy event with its own distinct atmosphere, and nobody would be surprised to see it as a part of the WRC also in the coming years.
Results after stage 23 of 23:
1. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford - 5.26.04,9
2. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford - 37,3
3. Francois Delecour (FRA) Peugeot - 1.30,8
4. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru - 2.04,1
5. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi - 2.58,2
6. Markko Märtin (EST) Toyota - 3.45,4
7. Juha Kankkunen (FIN) Subaru - 7.01,7
8. Freddy Loix (BEL) Mitsubishi - 8.05,7
9. Toshihiro Arai (JPN) Subaru - 9.15,9
