Swedish Rally 1999

The conditions in the Swedish Rally this year were wintery, although there was very little snow. The roads were icy but there were no snow banks to give the drivers additional support in staying between the ditches.

Mäkinen flying in Sweden (Photo by Ralliart Mitsubishi)

As if continuing from where they left at the end of last year's event Tommi Mäkinen and Carlos Sainz started a great battle right from the start of the rally. Sainz won the first stage but Mäkinen took the lead by winning the next two stages. The two seemed to compete in a class of their own. At the end of the day Mäkinen was still in the lead, but only by 1.7 secs.

Ford had equipped the new Focuses with a legal water pump and Thomas Rådström in his first appearance in the Focus again demonstrated the potential of the new car. Rådström finished the day third, 22 secs behind the leader, even though he had a small high-speed excursion on SS3, acquiring minor front end damage. His team-mate Colin McRae lost a minute in an off and was 5th, behind Toyota's Didier Auriol. Then came Subaru drivers Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen who both were very frustrated with the Pirelli tyres which didn't seem to provide any grip whatsoever. Both Seats had big fuel injection problems which made Marcus Grönholm (on loan from Peugeot) retire and Harri Rovanperä lose a lot of time.

On the next morning Mäkinen started gradually to ease away from Sainz, winning five of the day's six stages. On the very long and intensive Jutbo stage he was 12 secs faster and at the end of the day the difference was 30 secs. Neither Mäkinen nor Sainz had any major problems during the day. Rådström continued his strong performance but could not challenge the two leaders. Didier Auriol started his attack and closed up on Rådström. They started the final day 14 secs apart. Colin McRae retired with - you guessed it - water pump problems, so perhaps the modified water pump wasn't as insignificant a part as Ford let everyone think.

As expected, Tommi Mäkinen had no trouble in keeping Sainz behind on the final day of the rally, even though Sainz was still trying. The incredible dominant Mäkinen took his third Swedish Rally victory in a row with a margin of 18 secs. Who can stop this man! Carlos Sainz took his third second position in Sweden, an event that still hasn't ever been won by a non-scandinavian driver.

Didier Auriol was really trying on the final day (Photo by TTE)

The battle of the final day was between Auriol and Rådström. Didier had really set his sights to Thomas and was faster than him on all of the day's five stages, except the first one. But the Swede couldn't be fooled in his home event. At the finish the difference was only 2,5 secs but Rådström took the first official podium finish for the new Ford Focus.

Burns and Kankkunen, not able to compete with the Michelin-shod teams had their own "Pirelli-cup" which was won by Burns with a five sec time difference. 7th in the rally was the highest finishing privateer, Finnish driver Pasi Hagström with a Toyota Corolla. 8th was Estonian Ford driver Markko Märtin. Mäkinen's Belgian team-mate Freddy Loix finished 9th in his first Swedish Rally.

Group N was won by another Finn, Jouko Puhakka, who also was competing in his first Swedish Rally! Formula 2 was won by Per Svan in an Opel after Kenneth Eriksson's Hyundai stopped with a blown motor on the last stage of the rally.