Rally Finland 2001

Leg One

A record number of WRC cars started the fast and furious Neste Rally Finland with 19 works entries on the starting line including the brightest stars of today, some promising drivers of tomorrow, as well as a few champions of yesterday, such as Juha Kankkunen, Markku Alen and Stig Blomqvist.

There was drama already on the first stage of the rally as local favourite and championship leader Tommi Makinen hit a tree stomp cutting a corner too deeply and tore the left front wheel of his Mitsubishi, ending his rally before it really had begun. Initial lead was taken by Harri Rovanpera, who had been nominated for manufacturer points by Peugeot alongside world champion and last year's winner Marcus Gronholm. The Peugeots were going well on Friday's stages and on SS3 Gronholm took the lead over his team-mate by 3 secs. Third, quite surprisingly, was an up and coming Finnish driver Jani Paasonen with a privately entered Ford Focus. He was followed by the Subarus of Richard Burns and Markko Martin.

Richard Burns / Robert Reid (Photo by SWRT)

On the afternoon stages Gronholm first extended his lead, but on SS 8 Richard Burns moved into the lead after a tactical move by Gronholm, as the first car on the road again had a disadvantage because of the loose sand on the road, although in Finland the effect isn't as strong as, for example, in Australia. Harri Rovanpera had problems with the shock absorbers and dropped to 4th behind Martin. Fifth was Peugeot's Didier Auriol, then came Colin McRae as the first of the Fords, in front of Jani Paasonen.

Leg Two

The second day, as the first one, was driven in a warm sunshine of late Finnish summer. Marcus Gronholm showed on the first stage of the day (SS 10) who's the man and retook the lead by 12 secs. Rovanpera, who still was haunted by mysterious shock absorber problems fought hard with Martin all through the morning stages. After SS 13 Gronholm's lead over Burns was 18.2 secs and over third-placed Martin 25.4 secs, while Rovanpera was 1.2 secs behind Martin. Colin McRae was elevated to 5th, being followed by team-mate Carlos Sainz, who didn't seem to be able to find the speed he usually has in Finland. Paasonen rolled on the stage and continued in 11th place, but crashed again on SS 14 destroying his Ford Focus. Auriol had and off on SS 13 and retired. Juha Kankkunen joined the retirees on SS 16 after several technical problems in his Hyundai.

On stage 15 and 16 Rovanpera, with the shocks working properly, posted impressive stage wins and moved to second place past Martin and Burns. McRae had also started his attack and he took the 4th place in front of Martin. Gronholm's lead over Rovanpera after the second leg was 14.2 secs. With three long stages to go on the final leg Peugeot issued a team order freezing the situation, although Burns was only 38 secs behind the leader and despite the fact that Rovanpera was well ahead in the championship points with 20 points compared to Gronholm's 4 points. Team chief Corrado Provera explained that at this stage the team is primarily interested in the manufaturers' title.

Leg Three

The final day started with the longest stage of the rally. A large part of the stage had already been run on the previous day and the road was at places in a pretty bad condition. Richard Burns had set his target higher than on third position, and he posted a great time cutting the gap to Rovanpera to only 6.2 secs. The leaders passed through the long hard stage with relatively few problems, but for the group N production cars it was a disaster. The top three of group N retired with various problems, leaving the field open for Argentine driver Marcos Ligato to take the group N victory in front of all the Finnish drivers.

Marcus Gronholm / Timo Rautiainen. (Photo by Peugeot Sport)

Marcus Gronholm controlled the overall situation on the remaining two stages and took his second win in Finland with a confortable gap of 25 secs. After a troubled season he still is out of tuoch for the championship, though. On the final stages Harri Rovanpera's shock absorber problems returned, one of the shocks failing completely on the final stage. To his disappointment, both Burns and McRae passed him, leaving the Finn out of the podium.

Markko Martin finished 5th, ahead of Carlos Sainz and his Subaru team-mate Petter Solberg. Finland's Sebastian Lindholm finished 8th as the best privateer. The absolute favourite of the Finnish spectators, Markku Alen, aged 50, finished 16th with his Ford Focus, even though he had to drive the final stages with only third and fourth gears working.

Results of Rally Finland 2001:

1. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot - 3.23.12,8
2. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +25,0
3. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford +32,3
4. Harri Rovanperä (FIN) Peugeot +33,9
5. Markko Märtin (EST) Subaru +1.17,9
6. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +1.40,5
7. Petter Solberg (NOR) Subaru +2.39,6
8. Sebastian Lindholm (FIN) Peugeot +2.44,6
9. Pasi Hagström (FIN) Toyota ++5.01,2
10. Freddy Loix (BEL) Mitsubishi +5.05,4