Tour de Corse 1998

It seems to have become a rule in the WRC that the drivers and teams least expected to perform well will dominate each event. This time it was the Subaru team whose performance in Catalunya was nothing short of catastrophic. This also shows how important tyres are especially in asphalt rallies. Subaru had done their tyre tests before Catalunya in Corsica for both events, but the settings and tyres that work on the very twisty mountain roads of Corsica didn't work at all on the smoother Catalunyan asphalt roads.

Tour de Corse started in variable weather which made the tyre choices even trickier. The Pirellis used by the Subaru Team seemed to perform exceptionally well on damp conditions.  Both Subarus seemed to be from a different planet than just two weeks earlier in Spain. At the end of the first day, after six stages, Colin McRae was leading by 21 secs.

Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Photo by Subaru WRT)

After the second stage the organizers took Colin's tyres for inspection and found that the tread wasn't deep enough on the front tyres. In WRC slicks are banned like in Formula 1 this year. Because of this Colin was disqualified, but he was reinstated after an appeal by the team. Excessive tyre wear was due to an earlier puncture which had put extra pressure on the tyres. Hopefully there will be no more controversy over this particular incident, although a discussion on tyre rules in general might be in place.

Despite the partly wet roads the F2 cars were really flying on their home soil; the Tour is also a part of the French championship. Francois Delecour was consistantly fast all through the day and second overall with the Peugeot 306 Maxi. The gaps behind him were very narrow, only two secs behind was Piero Liatti of Subaru, then Carlos Sainz and Bruno Thiry. Didier Auriol, a favourite after his win in Catalunya was 5th after a 10 second penalty for arriveng late to a service. He was followed by Peugeot's Gilles Panizzi and Richard Burns of Mitsubishi.

Tommi Makinen was initially quite fast but on the road section after SS4 his Mitsubishi mysteriously refused to restart. The problem was traced to the computer box but nothing could be done. After half an hour the engine started as if nothing had happened but by then it was too late, Makinen was out of the rally.

Colin McRae had a problemfree second day and extended his lead to 47 seconds. The conditions were now drier, although there were still some showers. Carlos Sainz was also up to speed and climbed to the second position. The battle over the lower podium places was hard; at the end of the day Liatti was 3rd only 5 secs behind Sainz. Delecour dropped to 4th, 26 secs behind Liatti, and closely followed by Auriol, Thiry and Panizzi. Corsica didn't smile to Mitsubishi as also Richard Burns had to retire after he had an off a little *after* the finish of SS11!

The first day's stages were driven again on the last day, now on dry roads and sunny weather. It was an easy fare for McRae, winning finally by 27 seconds; an important win for the Scot who is now leading the championship, as well as for Subaru who jumped from the last place to the first in the manufacturer's points. The differences are, however, so tiny that any predictions on the outcome of the year are at the moment very premature.

Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Photo by TTE)

Despite McRae's clear win the last day wasn't an uneventful one. There was a huge battle over the second spot which Sainz tried to win by gambling right from the morning. First he tried a harder suspension setting which didn't work and he dropped to third. Then, he chose to drive without the puncture-proof ATS tyres which are a bit slower. That is, if you don't puncture. Needless to say, Sainz punctured on SS15 and had to change the tyre. He dropped to seventh and was out of the points. Sainz also had the closest confrontation with the dreaded Corsica cows seen again on the road by several drivers, as he almost hit one. Last year Tommi Makinen had a massive accident after hitting a cow.

The conditions on the third day really suited the lighter F2 cars which were really flying. After Sainz' problems Delecour challenged Liatti for the second place. Delecour said afterwards that he has never driven as fast anywhere as he did on the last two stages. On the last stage he was 11 secs faster than Liatti which was enough to give Delecour the second position with a margin of 2.8 seconds. Bruno Thiry was also very fast all through the day and was even in touch with the second place, but he spinned on the last stage and lost some 10 secs. That, in turn, was enough to give Gilles Panizzi the fourth place, 6.1 secs behind Liatti. Thiry was 5th,  another 9.7 secs behind.

Didier Auriol lost time with turbocharger problems and was 6th 2.39 behind the winner. 7th was Fabien Doenlen with the Citroen Xsara F2 who weren't as strong in Corsica as they were in Catalunya. Sainz was finally 8th and 9th was Juha Kankkunen who never got his Ford up to speed. Kankkunen was one of the people criticizing the fact that the F2 kit cars are able to take so many points on asphalt events even though they can't compete with the 4WD cars in most of the WRC events. FIA president Max Mosley also said that a discussion is in place to solve this problem. Separate championships both for drivers and manufacturers also for F2, so that the points would be counted from class results, not overall results, would seem a good solution to me.