Rally Portugal 1998

With the news of new teams joining the World Rally Championship the series seems to be gaining momentum all the time. Seat's World Rally Car will be introduced probably in Rally Finland, while Skoda and Peugeot are expected to bring their machines on the line next year.

The entry list of Rally Portugal boasted ten World Rally Cars, including five Toyota Corollas. Apart from the normal works drivers the three semi-works Corollas were driven by Marcus Gronholm, Thomas Raadstrom and Freddy Loix, all up-and-coming names of whom we're going to hear more in the future. As to level the amount of WRC expertese Ari Vatanen was again replacing Ford's  Bruno Thiry who is still recovering from his accident during the Safari Rally recce.

The rally started on Sunday with a single Super Special driven on a rallycross track in Lousada. The stage was won by Didier Auriol of Toyota but the differences among the top runners were minimal. On Monday morning the real competition started on warm and very dusty conditions. Marcus Gronholm won the second stage and took the initial lead, but then Colin McRae got his Subaru up to such speed that everyone else had a hard time to keep up. McRae won six of the day's nine stages and by the end of the day was leading by 44 secs to Juha Kankkunen on the second place. Kankkunen was very closely followed by Carlos Sainz and Tommi Makinen.

Colin McRae was in a class of his own on the first day (Photo 555 Subaru WRT)

5th was Freddy Loix who was battling with Richard Burns and Piero Liatti. After the strong start, Marcus Gronholm lost a lot of time with a broken rim on SS3 and retired at the end of the day. Didier Auriol dropped to 10th with problems in the 'joystick' controlled sequential gear selection of the Corolla. Sainz had similar but smaller problems on the first stages but they were cured in the service.

Auriol's problems continued on the second day. For several stages the Frenchman had only first and second gears; he came the steeper downhills in neutral as that was faster! After SS16 he lost all the gears and his rally was over. The second day took a heavy toll on others, too. A couple of trees played an active part in ending Tommi Makinen's rally on stage 12. He ran wide and the trees did serious damage on the driver's side of the Mitsubishi Lancer. The reigning champion has finished only once this year; he won in Sweden. On the same stage Raadstrom hit a rock losing a wheel and he also was out.

Juha Kankkunen had a differential failure on SS16 and had to drive the remaining four stages with only front wheel drive. Kankkunen dropped eventually to 7th, 3.5 minutes behind the leader. F2 championship leader Harri Rovanpera was among the retirees after he had stunned the spectators by running a part of a stage in reverse trying to work out driveshaft problems. The eventual reason of retirement was engine failure.

Not everyone had troubles, though. Colin McRae continued in the lead, although losing some time with a puncture. The name of the day was Freddy Loix who finished second in Portugal last year. Loix won the four final stages of the day and started the last day only 11 secs behind McRae and 20 secs ahead of works Toyota driver Carlos Sainz. Richard Burns was again showing very good speed; he was 7 secs behind Sainz. Ari Vatanen, driving in steady pace without problems, was 5th.

The seven stages on the final day provided something of a thriller for the always numerous spectators. Freddy Loix  kept in touch with McRae and Carlos Sainz was now in a seriuos charge posting several fastest stage times. Toyota team must have been considering team orders to let Sainz past Loix, even though direct team orders were banned by the FIA in the aftermath of the Australian Grand Prix. But on SS25 Loix lost the 5th and 6th gears and he was out of the fight for the win.

Sainz was still cathcing McRae. Before the last special stage of the rally the difference was 7 seconds. McRae made a good time on the final stage, the 11 kilometre SS28, but being the first one on the road he had to wait for Sainz to arrive to the finish. Sainz was almost five seconds faster, but that wasn't enough; The pair Colin McRae - Nicky Grist took a much needed victory with a margin of 2.1 seconds! Just as many thought Subaru had lost the edge they bounced back with a sweet victory. The manufacturer's points standing is now extremely close with MItsubishi and Toyota in joint lead with Ford and Subaru within three points. For Sainz the result wasn't too bad, either; he now leads the drivers' championship.

Freddy Loix (Photo by TTE)

Loix managed to keep the third place, losing 45 secs to Sainz. Richard Burns was charging behind him but was still 7.3 secs behind the Belgian at the finish. Nevertheless, Loix's performance was exceptional. Richard Burns showed again with his fast and intelligent drive that he is was worthy to drive a full season for Mitsubishi. This was the last event for the Lancer/Carisma Evolution IV as the Evo V version will be introduced in Catalunya. This might be bad news for the other teams...

Ari Vatanen engaged in a fight over the 5th position with Piero Liatti during the final stages. Ari did finish for the first time in Portugal (this was the 8th or so try, the first one being 25 years ago!) and kept the Italian behind by a margin of four secs. Juha Kankkunen, wth the 4WD restored, was one of the fastest drivers on the last day, but he remained 7th, 12.7 secs behind Liatti.

Group F2 was won by Adruzilo Lopes in a Peugeot 306 and gr. N by Gustavo Trelles, Mitsubishi.