Rally San Remo 1998

Piero Liatti - Fabrizia Pons (Photo by Subaru WRT)

After a long break due to cancellation of Rally Indonesia WRC action continued on Italian asphalt roads. The San Remo Rally is Piero Liatti's home event and he was again very strong right from the word go. Liatti won the first special stage, but the second was won by Tommi Makinen. The duel between the two drivers continued all through the first day and others could only watch from behind. Makinen and Liatti both took three stage victories during the day and in the evening Makinen was leading with a thin margin of 3.7 secs.

Following the leading duet came the Toyotas of Didier Auriol (21 secs behind the leader) and championship leader Carlos Sainz (30 secs). F2 cars were again fast on the paved surface, although the roads were partly very slippery in the mountains due to the heavy rains earlier. Jesus Puras won SS4 with the F2 Citroen Xsara, but he retired with cooling problems on the next stage. At the end of the day Francois Delecour was 5th overall with the Peugeot 306 Maxi.

Colin McRae had a puncture and lost almost a minute. Additionally, he complained about the handling of the car which was apparently set up according to Piero Liatti's style of driving. McRae was 9th after the first leg.

On the morning stages of the second day Liatti still pressured Makinen and came within 0.7 seconds, but on SS14 Makinen was 14 secs faster than Liatti who was struggling for grip. On the next stage Makinen made a small error and spun, letting Liatti close the gap again. On the last stages of the day Makinen was really flying and increased his lead to 28 seconds.

The fastest driver of the day was, however, Colin McRae, who climbed from 9th to the 3rd position but still 1:22 behind the leader. Didier Auriol made McRae's effort a little easier by retiring after an off on the second stage of the day. Carlos Sainz was still 4th with no major problems but just unable to keep up with the leaders. Richard Burns was doing fine in his first San Remo Rally after some problems during the first leg, he was 5th after the second day. Bruno Thiry was 6th with the Ford Escort. His team-mate Juha Kankkunen retired after a hefty crash on SS12.

Francois Delecour also retired with clutch problems and the lead of gr. F2 was taken by Philippe Bugalski with the Citroen, 7th overall. He was battling hard with Gilles Panizzi of Peugeot but between them in the 8th position was Andrea Dallavilla who was driving very hard with his Subaru Impreza. He was aiming for 4th position to secure the title in the Italian Rally Championship, not an easy task in a WRC event for a private driver!

Tommi Makinen - Risto Mannisenmaki (Photo by Mitsubishi Ralliart)

The last day consisted of six special stages and with no problems Tommi Makinen cruised to victory. He is now really hunting his third consecutive championship title, only two points behind leader Sainz. Liatti finished second in the rally, even though there was a possibility of team orders as Colin McRae was behind him in third position. McRae was engaged in a battle with Sainz, so team orders would have meant that Liatti drop to 4th and Subaru would have lost some valuable manufacturer points.

Philippe Bugalski retired in an off, leaving the victory of gr. F2 to Gilles Panizzi who was really storming on the last day, taking four stage wins and passing Bruno Thiry. Panizzi finished 5th overall. Then came Thiry, and 7th was Burns who suffered technical problems on the last leg. Dallavilla finished eighth.