Rally of Great Britain 1998

The rally formerly known as RAC Rally was again the venue in which the World Rally Championship title was decided. There have been dramatic plots in this play before but the tragicomedy this year with Lady Luck in the leading role definitely topped it all!

With Tommi Makinen leading Carlos Sainz by two points everyone anticipated a great duel between the two former World Champions. But, the awaited battle was over on the first day of the rally as Tommi Makinen had to retire in a controversial incident. After that Carlos Sainz only had to finish the rally in top four to win the title.

Tommi Makinen / Risto Mannisenmaki (Photo YLE)

The first day consisted of several short "Mickey Mouse stages" driven on a mixture of gravel and asphalt. On SS5 Tommi Makinen, driving first on the road, was caught by an oil patch which was left on the road by one of the competitors of the historic rally run earlier on the same day. Makinen slid into a concrete post and damaged the right rear of the car. He was able to continue but lost the wheel soon. He completed the next stage on three wheels and there would have been two more short stages before the service, but the police stopped Makinen as the car clearly wasn't in road-going condition. There was criticism from the Mitsubishi camp towards the organizers who didn't warn Makinen of oil on the road, but nothing could be done.

Sainz was second in the rally after the first day, the time differences still quite marginal. Colin McRae was leading by 3.6 seconds. Third, only 0.6 secs behind Sainz was Alister McRae, driving his first event with a WRC car. He had been given an opportunity to drive the second works Subaru alongside his brother. Didier Auriol was 4th (7.9 behind leader) and 5th Juha Kankkunen (12.7). Then came Richard Burns, Gregoire de Mevius and Bruno Thiry. The margins were really small, though, as Thiry on 8th place was 19.3 secs behind the leader.

On Monday the rally moved to Welsh gravel roads. This year the conditions were tolerable although the roads were muddy and quite slippery. The battle was now between a Scotsman and an Englishman as Richard Burns got his Mitsubishi up to speed. He came within couple of seconds from Colin McRae and even took the lead on SS16 as McRae spun twice because of bad tire choice. Colin then took the lead back but after SS19 his engine expired and despite frantic efforts they couldn't get it going from the service again.

Carlos Sainz / Luis Moya (Photo by TTE)

Carlos Sainz monitored the battle of the leading duo from the third place and was elevated to second as Colin retired. On the final stages of the day Sainz had some transmission problems and dropped to fourth, behind Alister McRae and Juha Kankkunen. Sainz' team-mate Didier Auriol retired on SS19. 5th overnight was Bruno Thiry, one minute behind Sainz, so with no further troubles on the final day, he seemed to have no problem in keeping Thiry behind and take the Championship title.

The conditions in the morning of the final day, Tuesday, had turned into very foggy and muddy and thus extremely slippery. Leader Richard Burns commented that because of the conditions they seem to be driving faster on road sections than on stages. On the first stage of the day Alister McRae dropped the rear of the Subaru into a ditch in a high-speed corner and rolled the car at least once. This meant that he was out of the rally which was going very well for him. It also meant that Carlos Sainz was now third behind Burns and Kankkunen. Bruno Thiry was catching Sainz, who seemed take things extra-carefully.

Thiry did pass Sainz on the remaining stages but that didn't matter, and I'm sure the Toyota Team had already champagne bottles out, ready to be popped, as the unthinkable happened. Carlos Sainz' engine stopped on the very last stage, with no more than 500 meters to go! The engine also caught fire, and it was terminal. I do not dare to think what was going through Carlos' mind as he realised he wasn't able to finish the rally, and saw the title he already thought he had, slip away.

Tommi Makinen was crowned World Champion, after all, for third time in a row. Nobody has achieved that before in the history of the WRC. Furthermore, this was the first time World Champions in both Formula 1 and WRC came from the same country, with Mika Hakkinen winning in F1. When asked how can Finland, a nation of mere 5 million people, produce so many motorsports talents, Juha Kankkunen once said: "I guess we're just so damn good." :)

Rally of Britain was won by Tommi Makinen's team-mate Richard Burns, a great win at his home event and with a clear margin to the second place man, Juha Kankkunen. Kankkunen did no errors and with others retiring around him brought the Escort to the finish in very honorable second position. The third place on the podium was taken by Bruno Thiry, so the long and successful career of the Ford Escort was brought to the and in a great fashion.

The fourth place went to Belgian driver Gregoire de Mevius, driving a Subaru, 5th was Sebastian Lindholm in yet another Ford Escort and 6th was Harri Rovanpera after several problems with the Seat WRC. Group F2 was dominated by up and coming Finnish drivers, with Tapio Laukkanen taking the win in the Renault Megane.

Richard Burns / Robert Reid (Photo by Ralliart)