Rally Argentina 2001

LEG ONE

Rally Argentina started Thursday with two super specials in Cordoba. The super specials, run in foggy and wet conditions, were both won by Colin McRae.

The foggy weather continued on the next morning, and so did McRae's early domination of the rally. The Scotsman posted fastest times stage after stage, his lead after SS 5 was 47.5 seconds over Richard Burns. Tommi Makinen was third, a minute behind the leader.

The conditions on the Argentine gravel roads were harsh as usual. Both Francois Delecour and Freddy Loix rolled in slow speed, being able to continue. The Peugeots experienced several problems, Marcus Gronholm had a broken turbo and dropped with loss of power, while Harri Rovanpera, replacing Gilles Panizzi on gravel events, sufferd from various problems right from the start and finally retired after SS 7.

Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz managed to take two stage wins away from McRae on the final stages of leg one, but his lead after the leg was 41.4 secs. Burns was second, followed by Sainz and Makinen. Didier Auriol, fighting with the setup of his Peugeot, was 5th, one and a half minutes behind the leader. Marcus Gronholm was 6th, close behind his team-mate.

LEG TWO

Richard Burns splashing on Leg 2 (Photo by SWRT)

Undeniably the fastest drivers on Saturday were Colin McRae and Richard Burns, who took turns in winning all of the day's stages, except the final short sprint won by Tommi Makinen. Despite trying very hard, Burns managed to eat only four seconds off of McRae's lead, which was 37 secs before the final leg.

Sainz was now in a secure third spot, as Makinen hit transmission problems on the first stage of the day, which slowed him down also on the following stages before the service, despite the crew's frantic efforts to repair the car themselves. The Peugeots continued to have technical problems, and Didier Auriol dropped to 9th, while Gronholm struggled in 6th place. With others in trouble, Subaru's Petter Solberg rose into 4th spot, but Tommi Makinen in 5th was catching him fast on the final stages of the day.

A bizarre and tragic chain of events occurred on stage 11 where a fire build by the spectators had gotten loose on the dry grass and destroyed more than ten spectators' parked cars. A fire truck hurrying to the scene of the fire lost control on the service area after the stage and hit both cars of the Skoda team toppling over on Bruno Thiry's car. The truck hit the technical director of Skoda, Dr Jens Pohlmann, who was crititically injured in the extremely unfortunate incident. Both Skodas also withdrew from the event immediately.

LEG THREE

Richard Burns continued his quest to catch rally leader Colin McRae on the final leg. He was six second faster than McRae on the first stage of the day, SS 16, and took another 6 secs away from his lead on SS 18 after posting almost similar times on stage 17. Burns was again fastest on SS 19, now 21.8 secs behind with only two stages to go. On SS 18 Tommi Makinen, despite some radiator problems on the morning stages, passed Petter Solberg, who spun on the stage. Marcus Gronholms bad luck continued, as he went off and retired on the same stage 18.

On the penultimate stage of the rally McRae was three secs faster than Burns, so his lead on the start of the final stage was 25.2 secs. That was too much for Burns to catch up on the final 16 km stage, which, in fact, was also won by McRae, who now opened his points account with a handsome ten points. Carlos Sainz finished 4th, a great result as the Spaniard started the rally with an injured back. Tommi Makinen secured his 4th spot on the final stages in front of Petter Solberg. Freddy Loix took the last point by finishing 6th. Didier Auriol completed Peugeot's disastrous rally by retiring after an off on SS 20.

So, the Argentine event was finally a success for the two unluckiest drivers of the early season. This also made the championship points table look even more interesting, even though Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz again edged a little further from the rest with their points scoring positions.

Results of Rally Argentina:

1. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford - 4.18.25,3
2. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +26,9
3. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +1.46,4
4. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi +3.12,6
5. Petter Solberg (NOR) Subaru +3.47,0
6. Freddy Loix (BEL) Mitsubishi +5.40,1
7. Francois Delecour (FRA) Ford +6.10,9
8. Toshihiko Arai (JPN) Subaru Hyundai
9. Alister McRae (SCO) Hyundai
10. Gabrielo Pozzo (ARG) Mitsubishi N