Rally Australia 2001

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Report by Darryl & Susanne Peroni

Reigning World rally Champion Marcus Gronholm showed a late return to form by convincingly winning the 14th Telstra Rally Australia for the second year in a row. Gronholm took command of the rally from the outset and mastered the changeable surface conditions to claim victory over second-placed Richard Burns by 40 seconds and third-place team-mate Dider Auriol who finished 1min 20sec behind.

The World Driver's Championship is now wide open, thanks to relatively poor finishes by title hopefuls Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen. With just one round of the World Championship remaining Richard Burns has set up a thrilling climax to the 2001 season as all three drivers are now only separated by just two points. Gronholm and Auriol's success has also elevated Peugeot to the top of the maunfacturer's Championship and they will be looking forward to reclaiming the Maunfacturer's title for the second year in succession.

This year's rally allowed crews to choose their starting position based on the championship standings. Those fortunate enough to finish higher and thus, choose a later starting position, benefited from roads swept clean of the notoriously slippery 'ball-bearing' gravel. Unfortunately Hyundai drivers Kenneth Eriksson and Alister McRae, were relegated to sweepers for the entire rally and were unable to gain precious time in order to finish higher in the classification and hence, a better starting position. Kenneth Eriksson later said: "This has been a very frustrating event for us but we knew it would be that way even before the first stage. Something has to be done about a system where drivers go into the very first stage of the rally knowing that they really haven't got a chance of scoring points or improving their positions."

Tommi Makinen drove for much of the first day in great pain due to his recent back injury from his accident in Corsica. Day one of the rally contained several rough and bumpy stages which aggravated his problem and caused him to drive well within his ability and finishing the day in sixth place. He was also hampered by inexperienced replacement co-driver Timo Hantunen who was unfamiliar with Makinen's pacenote system and who became lost several times while mis-reading his pacenotes.

Colin McRae's rally literally ended with a tick of the clock on Friday night. The Scot was late in reporting a nominated Saturday start time to the rally organisers who then declared that he would start first on the road on Leg 2. This was a huge blow to both McRae and the Ford team as Leg 2 was the longest of the rally and contained the difficult 45km Wellington Dam stage. The team protested the officials decision but later withdrew their appeal.

Saturday morning dawned grey and rainy which added to Ford's gloom. Francois Delecour took a 13 minute penalty early the following day before the day's first special stage and moved ahead of McRae in the starting order to afford the Scot a slightly 'cleaner' surface to drive on. Unfortunately, Delecour crashed heavily on the days's third stage (Wellington Dam) after clipping a tree on the inside of a corner and crashing heavily into a larger tree on the outside of the corner. Co-driver Daniel Grataloup was badly injured with several broken bones and a partially collapsed right lung and was quickly helicoptered to hospital in Perth. Officials decided to cancell the stage and regrouped the field in the nearby town of Harvey before recommencement of the rally. However, for McRae, the damage had been done as by the day's end he had dropped to fifth place and over a minute behind overnight leader Gronholm.

Hot dry weather returned for the final day's rallying in the SOTICO (Bunnings) stages 160km south east of Perth. Gronholm and navigator Timo Rautiainen carefully controlled their pace through the final four stages to claim victory. Richard Burns pushed hard on the first stage of the day but he was unable to make an impression on Marcus Gronholm and so settled for a second place overall.

Marcus Gronholm said: "I'm delighted! From yesterday morning I really knew we could win because after the team changed the steering the car felt so, so good and I knew I could push. We really won the rally yesterday because today's been about watching Richard's speed and making sure he doesn't get too close. It's obviously a good result for the team because it means we go to Britain at the top of the manufacturers series. I'll still be pushing hard there to make sure we win it again, so it'll be interesting to compare my speed to Colin, Tommi and Richard as they fight for
the drivers' title."

TELSTRA RALLY AUSTRALIA 2001 RESULTS:

OUTRIGHT
1 Gronholm Peugeot 206 WRC 3:17:01,3
2 Burns Subaru Impreza WRC 3:17:41,7
3 Auriol Peugeot 206 WRC 3:18:21,4
4 Rovanpera Peugeot 206 WRC 3:18:32,2
5 McRae Ford Focus WRC 3:18:41,3
6 Makinen Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 3:20:04,0
7 Solberg Subaru Impreza WRC 3:20:04,0
8 Sainz Ford Focus WRC 3:22:00,5
9 Panizzi Peugeot 206 WRC 3:22:10,3
10 McRae Hyundai Accent WRC 3:24:33,0

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers:
McRae (GB) 42
Mäkinen (FIN) 41
Burns (GB) 40
Sainz (E) 33
Rovanperä (FIN) 30
Grönholm (FIN) 26
Auriol (F) 23