Propecia Rally Of New Zealand 2002 review. Story by Simon Spode. Marcus Gronholm secured his second world drivers championship with a win on Rally New Zealand as his two nominal British challengers, Colin McRae and Richard Burns threw all their remaining chances of the title along with their cars into the Maori scenery. Once again the Finn showed his trademark consistency to take the win ahead of team-mate Harri Rovanpera and Subaru's Tommi Makinen (in his best finish of the year since Cyprus). The failure of Ford's crews to score sufficient points also made safe a third consecutive manufacturers title for Peugeot. LEG ONE The Rally New Zealand is one of the highlights of the season. Its smooth gravel stages are fast and flowing, and the region's geography gives the stages plenty of natural gradient, as well as camber changes. However it is also an event where road position is vital as the cars running first on the road sweep away the loose gravel. Eighty one crews left Auckland to cover the 611 km, including 117.08km on eight special stages, and it was Peugeot's Richard Burns who quickly stamped his authority on the event, outlining his determination not to give up his title without a fight. With fastest stage times on four of the stages he pulled out a lead of just under 20 seconds from his team-mate Harri Rovanpera despite being second on the road. Burns said: "I've been really surprised today. Last night, I was thinking that we'd end up somewhere between eighth and 10th at the end of today's stages, but instead I think the roads have been very slippery for everyone, even those who've had the loose gravel swept clean for them. It's good to know we'll be in a good road position." Harri Rovanpera commented: "I'm quite pleased by how it's gone today, but Richard's done well to get quite a good lead. Obviously he and Marcus have both got a chance of the drivers' championship so they've got a little bit more motivation. But I'm very determined not to let him get away and we're all running together in tomorrow's starting order, so we'll have to see how that goes." As if being first on the road was not enough, Marcus Grönholm's car lost hydraulic pressure on the day's second stage, spraying fluid over the car's windscreen. Grönholm attempted to halt the leak by tying a towel around the main pipe for the two stages before lunchtime service. On the day's fifth stage, his car struggled off the start line with a slipping clutch, but with a fastest time on SS6 the Finn moved back into third place. Grönholm said: "Already I think we've given away too much time to Richard. I've been a bit surprised in some places that we've been able to do such competitive times when we're running first on the road. Tomorrow our road position will be much better, but of course Richard's will be even better than ours so it's going to be tough." Like Burns, Colin McRae was the only other driver with a chance of the title but these faint hopes evaporated when he slid off the road on the fourth stage. McRae said: "I misheard a pace note coming into a second-gear corner and tried to take it in third. By the time Nicky (Grist) had a chance to repeat it, it was too late for me to make the corner. If we'd tried to go sideways we'd have slid down a bank and probably rolled, so we went straight off and the car nose down a bank. It was still visible from the road but a fence post had punctured the radiator and as we tried to get back onto the road, it started to overheat. That meant the engine went into a safe mapping mode so we lost the power we needed to even try regaining the road." The top non-Peugeot team was Subaru, although both Impreza WRC2002s had struggled with problems during the day. Tommi Mäkinen and Petter Solberg spent much of the morning fine-tuning the car's handling and attempting to cure brake glitches. Once the problems had been conquered, the pairing moved back up the top 10. Mäkinen ran as high as third overall at one point before dropping back to fourth in the last proper test of the day because of water injection problems. The day's revelation was Jani Paasonen in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo WRC2. He had only been drafted into Mitsubishi's line-up 10 days previously, after Alister McRae was pronounced unfit to drive because of injuries sustained in a mountain bike accident, but the Finn made the most of his opportunity as he set the first fastest time for Mitsubishi's Lancer Evo WRC since its debut in Sanremo last year, on route to fifth place overall. Paasonen said: "I've been really surprised here with the speed. I'm trying hard but we're only taking some small risks, not big ones. I don't know why it's working so well - of course we have roads cleaned of much of the gravel but also I think the car is working very well. Hopefully we can keep this sort of performance up for the rest of the event." Team-mate Francois Delecour had struggled however, and felt a strong vibration in his car after he hit a rock in the middle loop of stages. The Ralliart mechanics changed the car's propshaft, rear differential and four-wheel drive unit, but ended the sixth stage of the day in 14th overall. At Ford with McRae gone it was Markko Martin who again performed better than his more illustrious team-mates. With a good road position and fine-tuning his car's set-up to feel more comfortable on his first attempt in New Zealand, he returned to Auckland in seventh. The Estonian had had a fright on the first corner of the opening stage. "We came to a fast sixth gear bend and when I braked there was no grip at all," he said. "The car just slid and seemed to speed up. I was a little scared but I think my co- driver was more so! We were lucky it was a sixth gear bend and not any tighter." Carlos Sainz had been hampered by the new-specification launch control when he stalled on the start line of the opening stage, and a spin in SS4 lost him time, but he subsequently recovered his Focus back to 10th place. Sainz said: "I don't have so much confidence in the car at the moment. It seems a little soft, a little lazy in the handling. I can't be precise and on these roads, that makes it very difficult." All three Hyundai drivers had hoped to benefit from their road position, but none had been able to capitalise fully. Juha Kankkunen was unable to explain his lack of pace, given the Accent felt generally positive and finished ninth. Armin Schwarz admitted to being too cautious during the morning, over braking with his left foot, resulting in a soft middle pedal by the end of longer stages and 12th place overnight. Freddy Loix, meanwhile, chose too soft a tyre for the opening stage and lost further time with a spin in SS4. The Belgian recovered to hold eighth at the end of first leg. Schwarz said: "I've been a bit harder on the brakes than my team-mates because this is my first time here for several years. I don't want the speed to be jumping up and down, I want it to increase gradually and gain more confidence." Skoda's Kenneth Eriksson had a very short event. The veteran Swede was unhappy with his brakes on the opening stage and as he tried to bed in new pads at the start of the next test, he slid off on the first corner and nosed his Octavia down a bank. The angle was so steep that the car couldn't be returned to the stage and Eriksson retired on the spot. Eriksson said: "I'd tried to bed them in on the way to the stage. At the start time control they felt not too bad, but when I got to the first corner and tried to brake, the middle pedal was like hitting a plank of wood - there was nothing. I think they must have still been too cold." Meanwhile Toni Gardemeister kept his car on the fringes of the top 10, and he ended the day in 11th overall. LEG TWO Only sixty one crews left Auckland for leg two, which would see them cover 760.46km, including 204.13km on 10 special stages. Marcus Gronholm was telling TV crews that his only aim was to take second place from Rovanpera, but Richard Burns was unconvinced. For the majority of the day Burns looked able to cope with team-mate Marcus Grönholm's charge and he extended his cushion over Harri Rovanpera during the morning's stages. But in SS15, he crashed out of a 45-second lead, handing a decisive advantage to Grönholm and destroying his own chances of denying the Finn the world title. Burns said: "I'm really disappointed, because I desperately wanted to take my first win for Peugeot. It was a fourth-gear right-hand corner and I slid a little wide. There was a left-hander straight after it and it sent the car into the air. We went over a fence and cart wheeled into the trees." Gronholm had earlier passed Rovanpera, who had been experimenting with different settings on the 206's hydraulic rear anti-roll bar, and couldn't keep pace with the World Champion-elect, who had a comfortable lead by the close of play. Marcus seemed almost surprised at the sudden conclusion of the title battle, saying: "Of course I'm very happy about the championship, although it' s never nice when it happens like this, when your team-mate crashes out. But we have to look over the whole season and it's been a good one. Of course I was a little surprised to hear that Richard had crashed out - he was obviously pushing very hard - but it had been a good fight." Grönholm's navigator Timo Rautiainen commented: "It's quite a relief that the championship battle is basically over at last. But we still have to worry about the final two rounds of the season now - and already think about next year. Richard's shown here that he really has a feeling with the 206 now and I think we're going to have to fight hard everywhere in 2003." Third and fourth places were claimed by the Subaru pair of Petter Solberg and Tommi Makinen. They had started the day expecting to be fighting with the Fords and Jani Paasonen's Mitsubishi but as problems beset their rivals the job became easier. Both cars suffered mousse insert break-ups at various stages during the day, but Solberg fared better and had moved clear of Makinen by the afternoon. Mäkinen lost time with a big spin in SS15 and was also less than satisfied by his car's lights in the evening's dark stages. Petter Solberg said: "I have to say that I'm very happy. We have found a good speed that seems enough to beat the Ford and the Hyundais, and that's really all we can expect when the Peugeots are so strong. Tomorrow the aim is to make sure we end up on the podium, and it's looking good for that. On the same day last year, my son was born so I'm determined to give him a podium finish as a birthday present. I'm not going to let go of this one!" Tommi Mäkinen added: "The spin came at virtually the first corner on the stage. We had 300 metres and then a left corner, and the back end just came around. It was quite a big moment and the engine stalled, and we certainly lost some more time while I tried to restart it." There was disappointment at Mitsubishi when Jani Paasonen had to retire after he damaged his radiator in an SS11 accident. Paasonen had started in fifth overall, but was quickly overhauled by Solberg's Subaru. The Finn had reclaimed fifth when he inched past Tommi Mäkinen in SS10, but in the day's longest stage, Paasonen slid wide at a slow corner eight kilometres after the start and rolled down a bank off the road. Paasonen said: "I just went too quickly into quite a slow corner. But the braking area had some camber and the car went quite light, so I wasn't able to slow down as much as I wanted to. We went wide, and then the car rolled down about five metres beneath the road. I could see the radiator was damaged and we were losing water, so even though the wheels were all straight, there was no point trying to get back onto the road. I just moved the car to a safe place." Carlos Sainz ended the day in fifth and as the sole remaining Ford. He and Markko Martin had been closely matched during most of the morning's stages, with the Spaniard regularly quicker but rarely by more than a few tenths of a second. He increased his charge in the afternoon, moving clear of the Hyundais of Freddy Loix and Juha Kankkunen. Sainz said: "We're still pushing as hard as we can and we've made up some positions today, but we're still seeing an even bigger gap to the Peugeots because they've had cleaner roads. I'm not so surprised that they've been quick here, though, because we saw in Finland that on smooth gravel roads they have good speed. This evening we were able to try some things on the car but we've still made progress. I think now, though, that it's all we can hope for. If we hadn't had our problems yesterday then we could have been right up with Tommi at least." The anticipated battle between him and Martin never materialised, though, because Martin slid off in SS14. "We approached it a little too fast and clipped a bank on the inside," said Martin. "We rolled across the road and down a bank on the opposite side. It was quite a slow accident and the car wasn't badly damaged but it ended a couple of metres below the road." The car's hot exhaust set fire to the undergrowth around the Focus RS and Martin and co-driver Michael Park reacted promptly to put the flames out. They had just finished when another competitor left the road at exactly the same point and collided with the Focus and three people, including representatives of an official television crew. Organisers reported their injuries were not serious. Both Juha Kankkunen and Freddy Loix were generally satisfied with their Accents - Loix more so after he switched to an 'active' rear differential at the final service yesterday. Neither driver encountered any major problems or mistakes, and the dramas which turned the head of the leader board upside down allowed them to move up the standings as well. As a result, Kankkunen would start leg three in sixth, and Loix in seventh. Kankkunen said: "I know there have been a few retirements today, but I think we do have to be happy with this. Last year we'd have been fighting to get into the top 10 and here we're fighting for points placings. It has to be encouraging for the whole team. When you're anywhere near the points these days then you've done well." Loix added: "Yesterday I really felt towards the end that I just couldn't go any faster, so we had to try to find something else this morning. So we switched from a mechanical rear differential to an active rear differential. In the past, I've never been able to make that work - particularly with the settings of Juha or Armin - but we've taken some elements of my mechanical set-up and used them with the computer-controlled unit and it seems to be working pretty well. The handling is good now. The team has asked me to make sure I get to the finish tomorrow and not take any risks, so that's what I'll be aiming for." Toni Gardemeister knew that he'd face a struggle to overhaul Juha Kankkunen and Freddy Loix, but the young Finn experimented with settings and maintained a steady pace to keep his Octavia in touch with the top 10 positions. The retirements of Paasonen, Martin and Burns helped him into ninth by the end of the day. Gardemeister said: "I have quite a good feeling with the car on the stages today, but of course the roads have been cleaning for the guys after me so it's been hard to do really quick times. You can just feel yourself going sideways all the time, losing out at every corner. However, the car's certainly felt better since we made the changes to the ride height and the differential settings." François Delecour's Lancer had needed attention after he clipped a bridge in SS11, and Ralliart also had to change the windscreen on the car after it cracked in the same stage. Delecour, meanwhile, had also been hampered by his road position - the Frenchman being the first car into stages, and he had to cope with the thickest coating of gravel on the surface as a result. The third Accent driver, Armin Schwarz, struggled to find a rhythm and dropped behind François Delecour, but the retirements of Burns, Paasonen and Martin meant that he moved up to 11th as the day progressed. LEG THREE With all the top cars well spread time-wise it was unlikely that, bar mishaps, the positions would change radically as the 46 remaining crews set out to cover the 421.02km, including 90.19km on eight special stages. Marcus Grönholm knew that he only had to make no mistakes to ensure a fourth victory of the year and to tie up his second title in some style. His only potential rival, Harri Rovanpera, failed to make any impact during the morning and when he hit hydraulic problems in the afternoon, Grönholm's winning margin extended to almost four minutes. Grönholm said: "Of course I'm really happy about the rally and the championship. It seems strange to have things tied up so early in the season, but we've had a good finishing record this year. Apart from when I was excluded in Argentina, we've only retired from one rally - the Safari - and we've been able to score points on most events!" Harri Rovanpera had a less relaxing day when his car suffered hydraulic pressure loss with three stages remaining. The Finn had to resort to manual throttle command and regular gearshift, and he also lost the front brakes and the power steering as a result. It seemed at one stage that he would fall into the clutches of the pursuing Subarus, but it was not to be. Rovanpera said: "I'm pleased to get another podium finish and of course it's good for the team to get another one-two and the championship. It was a difficult end to the rally for me after the hydraulic problems, because I only had rear brakes and the power steering or semi- automatic gearshift weren't working. I thought Tommi or Petter would catch me, but they didn't." Peugeot Total Team Director Corrado Provera said: "To achieve this double success here is extraordinary. It's a fantastic result for a team and a manufacturer who are really committed to rallying and this championship." Peugeot's fourth entry, Gilles Panizzi, brought his 206 WRC home in seventh after an outing designed to give him experience of the New Zealand roads. Both of Subaru's drivers, Petter Solberg and Tommi Mäkinen, started the leg in comfortable positions on the leader board, so neither was prepared to take risks in the closing stages. Solberg lost some time with a centre differential problem on the opening pair of tests, but the Norwegian recovered to consolidate his third place. A certain second podium finish in succession looked assured but in the penultimate stage he suffered engine failure and he was forced to retire. Solberg said: "It's hard to put what Phil [Mills] and I are feeling into words right now. We're so disappointed. The engine just failed; there was absolutely no warning. I just don't know what happened." Mäkinen, meanwhile, played with set-up on his Impreza as he brought his car back to the Manukau finish in third overall after Solberg's retirement. Mäkinen said: "Third is a good result for me, of course, but it's not the way that I wanted it - it would have been better to get two cars to the finish and I feel really sorry for Petter." With a 50-second deficit to Tommi Mäkinen overnight and a cushion of more than a minute to Juha Kankkunen, Ford's Carlos Sainz had no reason to take risks. His only real scare came three stages before the end, when he slid backwards in a braking zone approaching a fast corner and hit a tree. Sainz's car struck a television cameraman in the incident without the double world champion even being aware of any contact. The injured party was taken to hospital suffering a suspected broken leg. The bodywork damage on Sainz's car stopped just shy of the car's rear suspension and he continued, finishing fifth. Sainz said: "I was in a fast braking area and the back of the car slid round. I managed to lose quite a lot of speed but obviously not enough, and we hit a tree quite hard. There was quite a lot of bodywork damage but the steering was nearly straight, so we were able to get to the finish without losing too much more time." Hyundai finished with all three cars still running. Armin Schwarz was gifted 10th by Solberg's late retirement. Juha Kankkunen moved up to fifth when Solberg retired to secure Hyundai's first drivers points of the season and Freddy Loix backed up his team- mate and arrived at the Manukau finish 42.3 seconds behind to score a point for himself and take Hyundai's haul to three points. Kankkunen said: "It's very good to get so many points for the team. Scoring anything in the world championship these days is pretty difficult, so three points from such a long trip is good for the whole team. I don't know if we can do the same again in Australia, but the first-day road conditions should suit us again so anything's possible." Skoda's Toni Gardemeister started the day's stages with little to gain, since he was over half a minute behind Gilles Panizzi and well over a minute clear of François Delecour. He concentrated on not making any mistakes and he brought his car back to finish in eighth overall. Similarly François Delecour didn't want to take any chances and so concentrated on playing with settings and again trying the driving techniques used by Jani Paasonen. He ended the event in ninth overall. Delecour said: "It's been very, very hard for us today because the roads have so much loose gravel on them. This morning I lost a little bit of feeling in the brakes - just the bite - but it wasn't such a big problem. Again today I've tried to drive like Jani did, using the brakes quite heavily to get the car lined up for corners, but there's been so much loose on the road that it's still been very difficult." OVERALL CLASSIFICATION 1 Gronholm-Rautiannen Peugeot 206 3h 58m 45.4 2 Rovanpera - Silander Peugeot +3m 47.6 3 Makinen-Lindstrom Subaru Impreza +4m 26.3 4 Sainz-Moya Ford Focus +5m 48.9 5 Kankkunen / Repo Hyundai Accent +7m 10.2 6 Loix-Smeets Hyundai Accent +7m 52.5 7 Panizzi - Panizzi Peugeot 206 +8m 24.4 2 8 Gardemeister - Lukander Skoda +8m 56.1 9 Delecour - Grataloup Mitsubishi +10m 43.6 10 Schwarz - Heimer Hyundai +11m 34.8 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR DRIVERS: 1. Grönholm (FIN) 67pts 2. Burns (GB) 34 3. C. McRae (GB) 33 4. Panizzi (F) 31 5. Sainz (E) 29 6. Rovanpera (FIN) 24 7. Solberg (N) 23 8. Mäkinen (FIN) 19 9. Loeb (F) 18 10. Martin (EE) 12 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers: 1. Peugeot 147pts 2. Ford 89 3. Subaru 50 4= Mitsubishi 9 4= Hyundai 9 6. Skoda 8 NEXT EVENT: October 31-November 3/2002: Telstra Rally Australia, Perth 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 España - 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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