Rally Australia 2000
Leg One
The penultimate round of the World Rally Championship started with the Langley super special on Thursday evening. The spectator stage was won by Marcus Gronholm, which meant that he had to start as the first car on the road on the Friday stages. The conditions in Perth area were not as dusty and sunny as usual because of hard rains earlier this week. The roads were expected to be even more slippery than usual.
Despite running first on the road Marcus Gronholm won also the first of Friday's nine stages. On the following stages he extended his lead although the stages were won by Juha Kankkunen and Petter Solberg, so the Subarus were going fine. Subaru driver next year, Markko Martin, and Freddy Loix, who had renewed his contract with Mitsubishi, both retired with transmission problems.
Tommi Makinen was fastest on SS 5 and took the second place, 4.7 secs behind Gronholm. Carlos Sainz was third, 5.9 secs behind. On stage six Solberg was again fastest, but Gronholm extended his lead to 7 secs. Colin McRae, who had been running 5th, suffered a blow to his championship hopes as the engine of his Ford Focus blew and the Scot retired after the stage.
Stage 7 was won by Francois Delecour who beat Gronholm only by one tenth of a second. Gronholm's lead to Makinen was now 11.7 secs. Richard Burns had been struggling with his car all day and was 8th, 40 secs behind the leader.
Tommi Makinen charged on SS 8 and cut Gronholm's lead to 5.2 secs. Francois Delecour and Juha Kankkunen had moved past Sainz to take third and fourth places. Burns was also starting to find the speed and moved to 6th, 15 secs behind Sainz.
On the final forest stage of the day, SS 9, which determined the starting order for the next day, tactics were applied in ridiculous proportions. Everyone tried to avoid driving as the first car on Saturday's slippery roads. Gronholm lost 36 seconds on the short stage and Hyundai's Kenneth Eriksson was fastest. Makinen and most front runners also were slow, so the lead was handed to Juha Kankkunen. Delecour was now second, Makinen third and Gronholm fourth, just 0.4 secs in front of championship rival Burns. Petter Solberg, whose rally had begun well, retired on stage 9.
Carlos Sainz' tactics included stopping on the stage for almost a minute so that he dropped to 8th place. This was too much for the organizers, and the Spaniard was later disqualified from the event. Apparently, being slow os allowed but stopping is not. Last year the driving order could be decided by the front runners themselves, but for some reason this system is not used this year, a fact that was bitterly criticized by the drivers.
Tommi Makinen and Francois Delecour were equally fastest on the Langley Park super special. Gronholm was again slow and dropped to 5th behind Burns. The margin between Kankkunen and Gronholm isn't still more than 23.5 secs.
Situation after stage 10 of 21:
1. Juha Kankkunen (FIN) Subaru - 1.27.17,2
2. Francois Delecour (FRA) Peugeot +9,6
3. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi +13,7
4. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +21,5
5. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot +23,5
6. Tapio Laukkanen (FIN) Ford +35,0
7. Toni Gardemeister (FIN) Seat +43,8
8. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +55,4
9. Possum Bourne (NZL) Subaru +1.01,9
10. Kenneth Eriksson (SWE) Hyundai +1.07,5
11. Alister McRae (SCO) Hyundai +1.49,6
12. Didier Auriol (FRA) Seat +1.58,6
