Safari Rally 2001

LEG ONE

The Safari Rally was this year moved from its usual time in March to July. Rains prior to the event had made the roads rougher than in previous events, which meant the world's toughest rally was now even a little bit tougher! There were a lot of deep tracks and potholes on the roads, as well as large patches of stagnant water and small rivers running across the road.

The first competitive section, run on roads not closed from the public, as ever, had a whopping 117 kilometers and was quite surprisingly won by Skoda's Armin Schwartz. Thus Skoda was for the first time leading a WRC event. Subaru driver Richard Burns wasn't as luck, as his Safari ended on the first section with a broken strut. Second fastest was Mitsubishi's Tommi Makinen, despite finishing the section with a smashed windshield after hitting a bird.

Makinen moved into the lead on CS 2 and kept his lead all through the remaining two sections of the first leg as well. Colin McRae had an off on CS 3, after which his Ford team-mate Carlos Sainz became the main challenger for leader Makinen. After the final section of the day, CS 4 Makinen's lead over the Spaniard was 1 minute and 32 secs. Sainz was 40 secs faster than Makinen on CS 4, a stage which saw also several new retirees, including Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm, who damaged his car in an off, and his team-mate Didier Auriol, whose 206 caught fire on the stage.

LEG TWO

Carlos Sainz' attack ended on CS 5, as the engine of his Ford Focus expired. Tommi Makinen was now in a comfortable lead of five minutes and twenty secs. Harri Rovanpera, driving for manufacturer points for Peugeot had risen into the second place, being followed by Petter Solberg, Armin Schwartz, Francois Delecour and Bruno Thiry. The situation in the top six seemed to calm down and the drivers were nursing their cars to see the finish in Nairobi. There were no further major dramas on the 5 sections of the second leg, although there were very few cars with no problems at all. On the final test of the day, CS 9, Makinen, after experiencing some transmission problems on the previous sections, was a whole minute faster than anyone else, extending his lead to over six minutes.

LEG THREE

The first section of the final leg (CS 10) was delayed because some of the helicopters running in front of the works cars couldn't take off due to fog, and CS 11 was cancelled altogether to catch up the timetable. Petter Solberg in the remaining Subaru broke a fron strut on CS 10, and he, too, was out of the rally. Tommi Makinen blew a turbo just before the morning service before CS 10 and shred a tire on CS 12, but that didn't stop him from taking the win with a hefty margin of 12 mins 37 secs. With the win Makinen regained the championship lead of ten points he had earlier in the season.

Harri Rovanpera finished second with a solid drive, but Ford has filed a protest claiming the Peugeot driver entered a time control from the wrong direction on leg one, so it still is up to the stewards to decide the fate of the second place. Anyway, it was the first podium finish for Skoda, as Armin Schwartz took the third place in this cruelling event. Schwartz' team-mate Bruno Thiry was cruising to the finish in 5th place until he rolled on the final section and retired.

Fourth in the rally was the remaining Ford of Francois Delecour and 5th Mitsubishi's Freddy Loix, who lost over 30 minutes with transmission problems on the final section and finished two hours and 44 minutes behind his winning team-mate.

Results of Safari rally:

1. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi 8.58.37,0
2. Harri Rovanperä (FIN) Peugeot +12.37,0
3. Armin Schwarz (GER) Skoda +18.15,0
4. Francois Delecour (FRA) Ford +20.36,0
5. Freddy Loix (BEL) Mitsubishi +1.44.02,0
6. Gabriel Pozzo (ARG) Mitsubishi gr. N +2.06.46,0