 Argentina Rally 2002 review.
Story by Andrew Frampton.
A spectacular Rally Argentina saw World Rally at its best, with the event fought out at full speed on the unforgiving roads of South America. Although he certainly wasn't the fastest driver on the event, Carlos Sainz emerged victorious after final day mayhem saw Subaru's Tommi Makinen roll out, and Marcus Gronholm, and later Richard Burns stripped of victory due to technical infringements.
After the cancellation of stage one because of spectator overcrowding, the action began on SS2, with Gronholm underlining his status as the championship favourite, by setting the fastest time through the stage, over six seconds ahead of Makinen. The Subaru of Petter Solberg was third fastest, ahead of the Peugeots of Harri Rovanpera and Burns. It was a similar story on the next stage, as Gronholm extended his lead with another fastest time, edging out Burns by the same 6.6-second margin he had achieved over Makinen over the previous stage. The former Mitsubishi driver was third fastest through the stage, and would set the fastest time on the second of the Pro Lane Racing stages.
By midway through the first day Gronholm's advantage was at 16.5 seconds, with Makinen 8.1 seconds ahead of Rovanpera in second. Burns, Solberg and Ford's Carlos Sainz rounded out the top six. As the cars raced through the mountains, they were at the mercy of the weather, which cast mist over many of the stages. Burns was fastest through SS6, edging out Makinen by just 1.8 seconds, while Makinen was also second fastest over the next stage, just 0.4 seconds slower than Gronholm. SS8 was one of the turning points of the rally, when the mist descended on the stage once Gronholm had run through. The first through the stage, the Finn found himself over 45 seconds faster than any one else. Burns emerged from the stage with the second fastest time, ahead of Gilles Panizzi and Sainz.
The next stage was also hit by the adverse weather, but this time the latter drivers had the best of the conditions, allowing Hyundai's Freddy Loix to set the fastest time, by 16 seconds. Gronholm's second fastest time through the stage set him up with an overnight lead of just over 1 minute and 40 seconds, with Makinen holding second position from Burns by 20 seconds. Solberg was significantly quicker than Burns through the day's final stage, and as a consequence was only six seconds in arrears overnight. Sainz was a comfortable fifth from Loix, who had really benefited through that final stage, moving himself ahead of Rovanpera. Skoda's Toni Gardemeister was fourth fastest through SS9, and held eighth overnight. Colin McRae was only ninth overnight, and although he had lost 40 seconds with a spin, he was over four minutes off the pace. His team-mate Markko Martin was tenth, ahead of Panizzi's Peugeot and Kenneth Eriksson's Skoda.
Alister McRae had a troubled day, and was six minutes behind Gronholm, in 12th. His team-mate Francois Delecour had rolled his Mitsubishi on SS7, and retired at the end of the stage due to the extent of the damage. Joining him on the retirements list was Hyundai's Armin Schwarz, who lost fuel pressure on SS9. However, the German was not in the running after losing six minutes with an off on the day's second stage. Hyundai's loose-surface expert Juha Kankkunen had shown well over the opening day, taking top ten times on all but one of the stages. Unfortunately, that stage saw him lose nearly seven minutes, and he ended the day in fifteenth.
Even at this early stage, Gronholm seemed to have a secure lead, but his luck took a turn for the worse at the beginning of day two. In just two stages, the Finn's 1minute 40 second advantage had been cut to just 16.2 seconds as the Peugeot was hit by hydraulic pressure problems. Cured in time for SS12, Gronholm made amends with second fastest time, but he lost another 3.5 seconds to Makinen. He was not the only driver in trouble early on leg two. His team-mate Harri Rovanpera was out after his Peugeot lapsed onto two cylinders on the opening stage, and it gave up all together on the road section to the next stage. Another driver not to make the second stage of the day was Loix, whose throttle broke.
Sharing fastest times through the Pro Racing Lanes, Makinen continued his charge on SS15, going 3.8 seconds faster than Gronholm. The Subaru driver was also faster over the next two stages to take the lead of the rally, and although Gronholm took two seconds back with joint fastest time on the final stage, Makinen was 0.5 seconds ahead overnight. Burns had been consistently quick over the second leg, and had set top four times on each of the stages to hold his third position. Just over 30 seconds off the lead, he would have his work cut out to make headway on the final leg. Solberg held fourth, but was just eight seconds ahead of Sainz after a superb duel. Colin McRae had made significant progress on the second day, including setting two fastest stage times, to take sixth overnight. Markko Martin was running well in seventh despite having a stone, thrown by a spectator, shatter his windscreen. Although he had lost time over the leg, the retirements of Rovanpera and Loix kept Gardemeister in eighth, just under a minute ahead of his team-mate Eriksson. Consecutive top ten times had helped Kankkunen move into tenth position, ahead of Alister McRae.
Although the final leg was made up of just four stages, it was full of drama and controversy. Gronholm got his day off to the best possible start by snatching back the lead of the event on the first stage, completing it 1.9 seconds faster than Makinen. He further extended his advantage with another fastest time over the next stage, while Makinen again took second fastest. Burns' desires on battling with the top two all but came to an end on the opening stage, when he lost 12.6 seconds to Gronholm. By the mid-point of the final leg, Gronholm held the advantage by 5.5 seconds from Makinen, with Burns now over a minute behind in third.
Sainz took advantage when Solberg over-shot a junction on the opening stage to edge into fourth position, which he held by just 9.6 seconds with two stages to run. Makinen has had awful luck this season, and it struck again on SS21 - the Finn clipping the final corner of the stage, launching the car into a series of barrel-rolls from which the crew emerged unscathed. Gronholm had been fastest on SS21, but with his rival out, he could afford to cruise to the finish, recording victory by just over a minute. Burns was comfortable in second position, and he rounded off his event by setting the fastest time on the final run (his fifth of the event). Sainz was faster than Solberg on the penultimate stage, leaving the Norwegian a 9.6 second deficit to make up on the final stage. He could, however, only make up 5.3 seconds on the final stage, and had to settle for fourth.
The two Fords of Colin McRae and Markko Martin completed the points finishers. Meanwhile there was joy for Skoda, who took their first manufacturer's points of the season, with Gardemeister's seventh position. His team-mate Eriksson took eighth, from Kankkunen and Alister McRae. That was not the end of the matter, however. Gronholm was summoned to a steward's meeting to answer claims that his mechanics had illegally worked on the car after it had left parc ferme on the morning of the final day. The news came back that Gronholm would be excluded from the event, promoting his team-mate Burns to rally victor. The Englishman's victory celebrations were short-lived, however, as he too was disqualified, in this case for a technical issue with the engine. This promoted a surprised Carlos Sainz to rally victor; with Solberg's initial anguish at missing out on third by just four seconds, now surely unbearable being so close to an improbable victory. Colin McRae was promoted to third, with Martin now an excellent fourth. Peugeot's despair became Skoda's delight, as they increased their points haul five-fold, with Gardemeister and Eriksson classified fifth and sixth. This left Juha Kankkunen to claim the final manufacturer's points, which was just reward for his phenomenal pace in the Hyundai.
The next round sees the teams travel to Greece for the Acropolis Rally in three weeks time.
Argentina Rally Result:
1. Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford Focus)
2. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru Impreza) +4.0s
3. Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford Focus) +2m19.1s
4. Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford Focus) +2m52.4s
5. Toni Gardemeister/Pavel Lukader (Skoda Oct'ia) +5m18.8s
6. Kenneth Eriksson/Tina Thorner (Skoda Octavia) +7m16.6s
7. Juha Kankkunen/Juha Repo (Hyundai Accent) +8m03.3s
8. Alister McRae/David Senior (Mitsubishi Lancer) +8m49.6s
Driver's Standings:
1. Marcus Gronholm 31pts
2. Gilles Panizzi 20pts
3. Carlos Sainz 19pts
4. Richard Burns 19pts
5. Tommi Makinen 14pts
6. Petter Solberg 13pts
Manufacturer's Standings:
1. Peugeot 68pts
2. Ford 41pts
3. Subaru 33pts
4. Mitsubishi 6pts
5. Skoda 5pts
6. Hyundai 3pts
2002 WRC season calendar
17/01 - 20/01 - 70E Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo
- Monte Carlo stage map by JR
- Monte Carlo preview by AF
- Monte Carlo review by AF
- Monte Carlo stage-by-stage times by JR
31/01 - 03/02 - Uddeholm Swedish Rally
- Sweden stage map by JR
- Sweden preview by AF
- Sweden review by AF
- Sweden stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Sweden by Ralliart
07/03 - 10/03 - Tour De Corse - Rallye De France
- Corsica stage map by JR
- Corsica preview by AF
- Corsica review by AF
- Corsica stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Corsica by Ralliart
21/03 - 24/03 - Rallye Catalunya - Rallye De Espaņa
- Catalunya stage map by JR
- Catalunya preview by AF
- Catalunya review by AF
- Catalunya stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Catalunya by Ralliart
18/04 - 21/04 - Cyprus Rally
- Cyprus stage map by JR
- Cyprus preview by AF
- Cyprus review by AF
- Cyprus stage-by-stage times by JR
16/05 - 19/05 - Rally Argentina
- Argentina stage map by JR
- Argentina preview by AF
- Argentina review by AF
- Argentina stage-by-stage times by JR
13/06 - 16/06 - Acropolis Rally
- Acropolis stage map by JR
- Acropolis preview by AF
- Acropolis review by AF
- Acropolis stage-by-stage times by JR
11/07 - 14/07 - Safari Rally Kenya
- Safari stage map by JR
- Safari preview by AF
- Safari review by AF
- Safari stage-by-stage times by JR
08/08 - 11/08 - Neste Rally Finland
- Finland stage map by JR
- Finland review by SS
- Finland stage-by-stage times by JR
22/08 - 25/08 - Int.Adac Rallye Deutschland
- Deutschland stage map by JR
- Deutschland review by AF
- Deutschland stage-by-stage times by JR
19/09 - 22/09 - Rallye Sanremo - Rallye D'Italia
- Sanremo stage map by JR
- Sanremo review by SS
- Sanremo stage-by-stage times by JR
03/10 - 06/10 - Propecia Rally Of New Zealand
- New Zealand stage map by JR
- New Zealand review by SS
- New Zealand stage-by-stage times by JR
31/10 - 03/11 - Telstra Rally Australia
14/11 - 17/11 - Network Q Rally Of Great Britain
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