San Remo Rally 2001

Leg One

As expected, the French teams Citroen and Peugeot were strong on the Mediterranean asphalt roads of the San Remo Rally. Fastest on the six stages of the first leg were Peugeot's Gilles Panizzi and Citroen's Jesus Puras. Panizzi kept the lead most of the day, but in the evening Puras took the lead by just 1.5 secs. Third was Philippe Bugalski (Citroen), followed by Didier Auriol (Peugeot), Sebastian Loeb (Citroen) and Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot), who kept up surprisingly well wth the asphalt specialists. The first one driving a non-French car was Ford's Carlos Sainz in 7th place.

Bad luck stroke on Richard Burns, who slid off on a corner on the first stage and retired.Also Armin Schwartz and Piero Liatti retired on the first stage. Mitsubishi introduced their long awaited Lancer WRC, which is based on the marque's Japan only Cedia model. The start for the new model was less than flattering, as Tommi Makinen suffered from transmission problems right from the beginning and finished the first leg outside of top ten. Colin McRae, sharing the championship lead with Makinen, was also struggling with his Ford Focus.

Leg Two

On the first stage of the second leg, SS 7, Jesus Puras tried too hard to keep his lead and crashed, damaging the rear of his Citroen badly. On the following stage another Citroen of Philippe Bugalski also retired. Panizzi now found himself in a lead of 32 secs. The young newcomer with the remaining Citroen, Sebastien Loeb, who is familiar from the Super 1600 series, and experienced Peugeot driver Didier Auriol were fighting over the second place.

Panizzi increased his lead to 34.5 secs on the final stages of the second day, and Loeb started the last leg in second position in front of Auriol. Gronholm was now 4th, followed by Sainz.

Leg Three

Sebastian Loeb showed his potential on the final leg challenging Panizzi for the victory of the event. Their time difference before the last stage was only 11.8 secs. Panizzi kept his nerve, though, and was only 0.4 secs slower than the young Citroen driver on the final test, and took the win of the San Remo Rally. Didier Auriol felt on leg three the pressure of Carlos Sainz, but he manged to keep the Spaniard safely behind and finish third. Marcus Gronholm dropped to 7th place after losing the power steering on his Peugeot. 5th in the rally was Italian privateer Renato Travaglia and 6th Francois Delecour.

The championship table didn't change dramatically in San Remo, as of the top drivers only Carlos Sainz managed to score points. Colin McRae finished 8th and Tommi Makinen retired from 11th place on the final leg. Mitsubishi's new WRC car was a disappointment for the four time champion, who is considering his options for the next season. The rumours say that after 7 years at Mitsubishi, Makinen is heading to Citroen or Subaru for the 2002 season. The Subaru seat is freed by Richard Burns, who joins Peugeot next year.

Results of San Remo Rally:

1. Gilles Panizzi (FRA) Peugeot - 4.05.49,5
2. Sebastien Loeb (FRA) Citroen +11,4
3. Didier Auriol (FRA) Peugeot +54,9
4. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +1.11,9
5. Renato Travaglia (ITA) Peugeot +1.32,1
6. Francois Delecour (FRA) Ford +2.28,6
7. Marcus Grönholm (FIN) Peugeot +2.47,3
8. Colin McRae (SCO) Ford +3.53,7
9. Petter Solberg (NOR) Subaru +3.59,9
10. Simon Jean-Joseph (FRA) Peugeot +4.01,5
11. Harri Rovanperä (FIN) Peugeot