Rally Australia 2000
Leg Three
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| Tommi Makinen / Risto Mannisenmaki (Photo by Mitsubishi Motors) |
On the final leg of the rally the battle was really on, finally. As expected, Tommi Makinen got the upper hand, winning both stages 18 and 19 and taking the lead. On SS 18 Burns was 1.7 secs faster than Gronholm, so the difference between the remaining championship contenders was only 0.9 seconds.
Despite running first on the road, Gronholm was fighting with all of his might. On stage 19 he lost just one tenth of a second to Burns. On SS 20 he was fastest - by 0.2 seconds - so the difference was again 0.9 secs. Makinen's lead wasn't that large either, he was 7.8 secs in front of Gronholm, with one stage to go.
The hair-raising battle culminated on the final stage, on which fastest was Marcus Gronholm. He beat Burns by 1.8 seconds and Makinen by 2.3 secs. This meant that Makinen was the winner and Gronholm second, with a margin of 5.5 secs. Burns had to settle for third, and one can't but wonder whether all the tactics paid off, bearing in mind that Burns at some point had a lead of 40 seconds...
Francois Delecour took the fourth place in Australia, putting Peugeot very close to the manufacturers' title. Fifth was a great result for Hyundai's Kenneth Eriksson, as was sixth for Tapio Laukkanen who was the sole surviver within the Ford team. Seat's Toni Gardemeister completed the Finnish dominance in the results, finishing 7th in his penultimate rally with the Spanish team.
After the rally the turbo charger of Tommi Makinen's Mitsubishi was found not to comply with the rules, and the winner of the rally was excluded. The team had used non-homologated parts in the new turbo by mistake. This meant that Marcus Gronholm became the winner of the rally and Richard Burns was second.
Burns now has to win in Britain to take the championship, and even if he does win, Gronholm should finish outside the top five.
Results after 21 stages:
1. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi - 3.43.51,7 (Excluded)
2. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot +5,5
2. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +8,2
4. Francois Delecour (FRA) Peugeot +1.38,4
5. Kenneth Eriksson (SWE) Hyundai +2.26,1
6. Tapio Laukkanen (FIN) Ford +2.36,4
7. Toni Gardemeister (FIN) Seat +2.54,8
8. Possum Bourne (NZL) Subaru +4.39,0
9. Gilles Panizzi (FRA) Peugeot +7.39,6
10. Didier Auriol (FRA) Seat +8.00,1
11. Neal Bates (AUS) Toyota +9.12,3
12. K. Taguchi (JPN) Mitsubishi +13.52,1
