Rally Australia 1999

The stakes are high in Rally Australia. Tommi Makinen has to get four points more than Didier Auriol to clinch the championship title.

Colin McRae was fastest on Thursday's only special stage, the 2.2 kilometre Langley Park super special. Time differences were minimal, though, as top six drivers were within one second. Didier Auriol was 2nd, followed by Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen.

Despite being in the lead McRae didn't have to start first on the road and clear the road from the slippery loose gravel as in previous years as the top 18 drivers start in reversed order. After the frst leg the FIA seeded drivers get to pick their starting position so that the rally leader makes his choice first. Other drivers then pick one of the remaining positions. This system has been widely appreciated by the top drivers, but especially in the first leg it resulted in some drivers losing a lot of time because they had to drive in the dust of slower competitors.

The first leg driven Friday was packed with action. Initially, Didier Auriol took the lead to keep his championship hopes alive. The differences among the top drivers remained small on the short opening stages. On the first of the longer stages, SS5, Juha Kankkunen hit a large tree root which resulted in suspension damage and retirement. Didier Auriol was in the lead, followed by Colin McRae (-2.8secs) and Tommi Makinen (-7.6). Richard Burns was 4th and Carlos Sainz 5th.

A rather harmless-looking damage led to Auriol's retirement.

On SS6 Didier Auriol crashed into a tree, losing some 20 secs on the stage. After the stage, however, damaged radiator in Auriol's Toyota resulted in terminal engine failure, and Didier was very disappointedly out of the rally. Tommi Makinen now needs to finish in top three to clinch the title before the final round of the championship in Britain.

Colin McRae moved into the lead of the rally for a while, but on SS8 Makinen was faster and took the lead. On SS9 both Makinen and McRae punctured a tire and lost a lot of time. Makinen dropped to 4th and McRae 3rd.

The new leader was Carlos Sainz, who prior to the event was announced to have signed a contract to drive for Ford next year. He also posted fastest times on the three remaining stages of the day. Richard Burns, going well all day, is at the moment the only strong contender for the lead, his gap to Sainz is 6.3 seconds. McRae was at the end of the day 50.2 secs behind the leader and Makinen 1.18.7 behind, a gap that is difficult to close even though there are still two days to go. But, mind you, Makinen doesn't need to win, third is enough for him.

Freddy Loix is 5th, 32 secs behind his team-mate Makinen. Toni Gardemeister is again fastest of the Seats, he is 6th, in front of team-mate Harri Rovanpera. Thomas Radstrom is 8th, already three and a half minutes off the pace. The Peugeots of Marcus Gronholm and Francois Delecour have had problems; they are 10th and 11th, respectively. Especially Rovanpera and Gronholm complained that they lost minutes because they had to drive in the dust raised by a slower driver.

The top drivers started on the second leg in the road order they picked according to the new system. Carlos Sainz started 9th on the road and Marcus Gronholm was left to clear the road as the first car.

Burns took the lead on SS12

Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz fought hard over the lead of the rally all through the second day. Burns took the lead on the first stage of the day and was fastest also on the following couple of stages. Sainz didn't give anything for free, though, and he was only 4.4 seconds behind the Subaru driver after a long day of rallying.

On the first stage of the day, SS12, Colin McRae crashed spectacularily and totalled the Ford. The crew was reported to be unhurt in the accident. With McRae out, Makinen took the third position, which as enough to give him his 4th consecutive championship title. Makinen took it easy, just securing his position on the second leg. He was two and a half minutes behind the leader and there was a similar margin to the driver behind, his team-mate Freddy Loix.

There was a nice battle going on over the 5th position, as Marcus Gronholm and Harri Rovanpera were closing on Thomas Radstrom. After Saturdays stages Gronholm was only 1 second behind Radstrom and Rovanpera 8 secs behind Gronholm. Toni Gardemeister lost almost 20 minutes on SS19 with gearbox trouble. He continued in 19th position but hopes for points finish were lost in the rally that started well for him.

The four stages of the final day didn't bring changes in the leaderboard. Sainz came within one second of Burns on the first stage of the day, but on the next one Burns was 10.8 seconds faster. Sainz was 0.1 secs faster on the final two stages, so Burns took the win by 11.6 secs. Sainz' second position clinched the manufacturers' title for Toyota. The final stage was televised live in Australia, but no extra points were awarded. The TV-stage idea has been buried by the FIA as the drivers didn't much appreciate it. Also, TV stages are expensive and difficult to arrange in some rallies.

Tommi Makinen celebrated his 4th consecutive WRC title.

Tommi Makinen didn't even try to stay on the pace of the leaders anymore, the gap extended to four and a half minutes during the final day. Nevertheless, Makinen is again the World Champion. He is ten points ahead of Auriol, and even if Auriol wins in Britain and Makinen scores no points, he gets the title with more wins this year.

5th place in the rally went to Marcus Gronholm who left Radstrom behind on the final leg. Also Rovanpera passed Radstrom and finished 6th. Radstrom was 7th. Group N was won by Japanese driver Toshihiro Arai with a Subaru. He finisehd 8th overall. Gr. N leader earlier, Uwe Nittel, hit a rock and dropped to 3rd in his category. 9th in the rally was Kenneth Eriksson who won the F2 category with his Hyundai. Second in F2, 10th overall was Martin Rowe.