Rally New Zealand 2000
LEG TWO
The second leg of Rally new Zealand headed to the forests and hills north of Auckland for nine stages. The conditions were initially the same as on the previous leg, but light rain started to drizzle already during the first stage of the day.
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| Richard Burns / Robert Reid (Photo by SWRT) |
The starting order was now changed according to the results of leg one, and on SS 9 rally leader Francois Delecour was only 8th fastest. The stage was won by Richard Burns with Colin McRae and Marcus Gronholm second and third, separated only by one tenth of a second. Gronholm took the second position overall from Petter Solberg. The drivers were pleased with the better grip the slightly damp road surface offered.
On stage 10 Francois Delecour hit trouble as he stopped on the stage for ten minutes to sort out gearbox problems. He managed to get to the finish of the stage and started SS 11, but had to retire on the stage after only a short distance. The results of SS10 looked much the same as on stage 9; Burns won, McRae was second and the new rally leader Marcus Gronholm third.
The top three on SS 11 was again the same as on earlier stages. Petter Solberg who had been second after Delecour's retirement was losing ground fast. Carlos Sainz took the 2nd spot on SS 11, 26 secs behind Gronholm. McRae in 4th was only one second ahead of Burns and 40 secs behind the leader.
Stage 12 was the longest stage in the whole Championship, the 59 km Parahi/Ararua special. Quite incredibly, the leaderboard of the stage was again Burns - McRae - Gronholm. Burns and McRae were really charging, though, as their difference was only 7 seconds whereas Gronholm lost 22 seconds to Burns. This meant that Burns took the second place, 18.8 secs behind the Peugeot driver and McRae moved into third, 25 secs behind Gronholm. Sainz made a bad tyre choice on SS 12 and was now 4th, followed by Kankkunen and Eriksson, who was still going strong with the Hyundai. Solberg dropped down to 7th. Tommi Makinen was still struggling with differential problems in 8th place.
Burns was trying too hard on SS 13 and spun, losing 18 seconds to stage winner McRae, who now moved into second. Kankkunen was going very consistently, third on the stage and solid 5th in the race. The rain had started in earnest and the stages were now quite wet. McRae made a good tire choice and was fastest again on SS 14, but the margins were small in the top three. Hyundai's Alister McRae was 6th on the stage and closed on Tommi Makinen in 8th position.
Gronholm took his first stage win of the day on SS 15, but again there was very little to choose from between the top drivers. 7 drivers finished the stage within 10 seconds and the positions remained stable. The story was much the same on SS 16, with Gronholm taking a narrow victory. Solberg was pressing on and passed Eriksson in 6th place. Didier Auriol, who had been running 10th, hit the road bank close to the finish of the stage and rolled a few times, retiring from the event.
The results of the final stage of the day, SS 17, were almost identical to the overall situation. Gronholm was again fastest, but McRae was only 7 tenths slower and starts the final leg 22 secs behind the Finn. Burns in third was 14.5 secs behind McRae and Sainz in fourth place was already more than a minute behind the leader.
Situation after stage 17 of 24:
1. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot - 2.59.58,6
2. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford +22,9
3. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +37,4
4. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +1.10,2
5. Juha Kankkunen (FIN) Subaru +1.39,0
6. Petter Solberg (NOR) Ford +2.50,3
7. Kenneth Eriksson (SWE) Hyundai +3.06,8
8. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi +3.15,3
9. Alister McRae (SCO) Hyundai +3.28,9
10. Possum Bourne (NZL) Subaru +5.55,4
