 Rallye Sanremo - Rallye D'Italia 2002 review. Story by Simon Spode.
Peugeot driver Gilles Panizzi overcame the discomfort caused by
his recent shoulder injury to further cement his reputation as
tarmac master with a win on the Rallye Sanremo, the 11th round of
the FIA World Rally Championship. Panizzi and his brother Hervé
had led from the second stage on Friday morning and eventually
won by just over 20 seconds from their team-mate, Marcus
Grönholm. Petter Solberg was rewarded with third place after
another excellent drive. The result earned Peugeot another
maximum score in the manufacturers' championship to take the team
to within a few points of a third successive makes crown, and
Grönholm's second overall extended the Finn's lead in the drivers
series.
LEG ONE
Fifty three crews had started from Sanremo at 0600h and during the day
covered 538.88km, including 147.25km on eight special stages.
Although Marcus Grönholm took the first stage win, by SS2 Panizzi
was obviously settled back into his day job as he set fastest
times on all the day's remaining seven tests to build a 23sec
advantage overnight. Panizzi said: "It's been going well today
and I've got a really good feeling with the car. I know I can
attack with it. My shoulder is not a big problem for me at all. I
know I can drive at this speed for the rest of the rally without
taking risks."
Marcus Grönholm's progress had been hampered by loss of turbo
boost pressure during the morning and then brake fade and gearbox
glitches in the afternoon stages. This meant that Phillipe
Bugalski in the privateer Citroen Xsara was able to overhaul the
Finn and hold 2nd place after leg one by 16sec. Marcus Grönholm
said: "It's been a quite frustrating day because I've got a good
feeling with the car and I know from the times of Gilles and
Richard that we could have been right up there. But we had this
loss of boost and then some more problems this afternoon, so
we've got a lot of work to do. Already I think we've given away
too much time to Gilles."
The afternoon had not been good for reigning world champion
Richard Burns either. He had been Panizzi's closest challenger in
the early stages but as the day progressed, the Englishman found
himself under increasing pressure. Try as he might, Burns
couldn't prevent Bugalski from inching ahead and then in the very
last stage of the day, Grönholm nipped through into third overall
too. Richard said: "I genuinely can't tell where Marcus was
getting the time in the last few stages today. For me it felt
fine inside the car - the last stage had a bit of fog that was
swirling around so the visibility changed for everyone from
corner to corner, but the penultimate stage felt very good for me
and still he took time. I'll have to have a good talk with the
engineers to see if we can work out why this happened and find
more speed for tomorrow."
Markko Martin was lead Ford driver in fifth place. The Estonian
had thrown caution to the wind with experimental set-ups and the
success of these meant he was up there challenging for the title of top non-
French car. Markko Martin said: "I wouldn't say I'm surprised but
it's certainly nice to be fighting with guys like Petter and
Tommi in this sort of position. We had a good set-up, which
worked well this morning, and although I've been pushing hard and
maybe slid wide at a few corners, there haven't really been any
massive moments. Hopefully we can just keep this sort of form up
for tomorrow."
Martin's success was pretty much the exception for Ford as Colin
McRae and Carlos Sainz saw no change in their recent fortunes.
Colin McRae had lost time early when he stalled at a hairpin and
then suffered two punctures - one in SS2, the other in SS4. The
Scot then stalled on the start lines of SS6 and SS7, losing
further time, and he ended the day in 10th, over a minute off a
points placing. McRae said: "I think today shows that we're
making slow progress with the whole package. It's certainly
better than it was before and even after this morning we found
some more improvements in the set-up. The biggest problem today
is that we've really only had one clean stage so it's very hard
to get into a rhythm in that situation. As for scoring a point,
it doesn't look too promising at the moment." Carlos Sainz had
been ninth overall after SS3 but on the way to the next stage,
the Spaniard's car suffered an engine oil leak and he was forced
to retire.
Two seconds behind Martin was Jesus Puras in the other Xsara
WRC, and the Spaniard had Petter Solberg 7sec behind him in 7th
place. Tommi Makinen had been lead Subaru for most of the day in
and around 6th place but he broke a driveshaft before the start
of SS8 and ran out of time trying to fix the problem. Solberg had
also had an eventful day with a 10 second jump start penalty and
then a spin in SS5. Solberg said: "I don't believe the jump start
was right because I've never had a jump start in rallying, ever.
It's a shame if we get the penalty because we've been so close to
Tommi all day and we've been fighting for points all the time.
For sure you can see we're making progress because we're so much
closer to the other guys now." The third Impreza of Austrian
Achim Mortl held 14th overnight.
Cedric Robert was 8th in his privateer 206WRC with Freddy Loix's
Accent WRC3 9th. The Belgian had turbo problems following the
turbo change after the pre-event shakedown which lost him some
time, but he fared better than team-mate Armin Schwarz who was
forced to retire with a broken bottom arm in its rear suspension
after the German clipped a crash barrier on the opening
stage. Schwarz said: "I'm so, so disappointed. It was my mistake.
The barrier was on the inside of the corner and I just saw it
coming towards the rear of the car. I hoped I might get away with
it but I felt it hit the rear wheel rim and then on the next
straight, it was clear that we had a problem. There was a bolt
broken in the suspension so we couldn't continue. I find it
really hard to believe that after all of the work that I've had
to do just to get here after my accident in Germany, I've retired
so early."
Of the other works teams, Mitsubishi continued to experience
dramas. François Delecour's Lancer Evo WRC was reliable until the
last stage, when it suffered turbo failure, dropping the
Frenchman out of the top ten to 13th place. Alister McRae's car
had smoked badly in its engine bay before SS2 but after the crew
stopped to check the problem they failed to attach the bonnet
pins correctly before the next test. It flew up shortly after the
start of SS3, smashing the car's windscreen and leaving McRae in
18th overnight. Alister said: "We saw some smoke coming from
under the bonnet so we decided to investigate. I must have
forgotten to put the bonnet pins back in properly because shortly
after the start, it flew up and obviously damaged the windscreen.
It's the sort of thing that I've seen happen plenty of times in
the past and I always wondered, 'How on earth did they forget to
do that?' Now I know..."
Skoda had no major crises but all three Octavias lay outside the
top 10. Its lead drivers, Kenneth Eriksson and Toni Gardemeister
would start leg two in 16th and 12th places respectively with
third driver Roman Kresta in 17th.
LEG TWO
Forty three crews would start leg two to negotiate 520.83km, including
150.57km on six special stages in cloudy and damp conditions, but
by return to Parc Ferme Gilles Panizzi has consolidated his lead
at 22 seconds. The threat from Philippe Bugalski's privately run
Citroen evaporated after the Xsara crashed out on SS10, but the
day was not without difficulty for Panizzi.
Firstly Bugalski's accident had temporarily blocked the stage in
front of the leader and he lost over a minute as a result.
However, event stewards awarded Panizzi a 'notional' time (that
of his team-mate Grönholm) that was considered more
representative of his pace, so he was not ultimately
disadvantaged by the incident. He then opted for too soft a tyre
for the closing two stages but with his team-mates also getting
their choices wrong, Panizzi lost little time.
Gilles Panizzi said: "I'm really happy to still have the lead
tonight, to be honest. I said to Hervé before the last stage that
we'd lose the lead, because we were on completely the wrong tyres
and the car was moving around. In fact, I was left-foot braking
and I never left-foot brake normally. So I'm quite confident now
with 22 seconds over Marcus."
With a win on SS9, Peugeot team-mate Marcus Grönholm had closed
the gap to Bugalski before the Frenchman's retirement anyway, but
the Finn had been a consistent top-three stage timer as he
pulled away from Richard Burns and kept the gap to Panizzi
consistent. Grönholm said: "It's just a bit of a shame that we
lost the time to Gilles yesterday, because if we hadn't we'd be
that bit closer and it would be easier to put him under more
pressure. As it is, if we have a good stage we can take a few
seconds from him but then he has the ability to take that time
back in the very next run. I think the clever thing to do
tomorrow is to settle for second and take some good points."
Burns, in the third 206WRC had tried various changes in his car's
set-up. A switch of boost settings helped matters in the middle
pair of stages, but the Englishman then lost third to Petter
Solberg in the last stage of the day, when he was caught out on
too soft a compound of tyre.
Solberg had charged through the day's stages, inching away from
Jesus Puras and moving ahead of Markko Martin and Richard Burns.
Fastest times in both of the last two stages (thanks to an
inspired tyre choice) catapulted the Norwegian more than 20
seconds clear of the reigning champion. Solberg said: "I don't
think there's much more left! We've played with a few settings
this morning and I've been quite pleased by the results, but
where there's corner-cutting possible we've been taking quite big
chunks, so there's not much more that we can do. Tomorrow the aim
is to keep the advantage over Richard, of course."
Subaru had lost the second of its Imprezas after the morning's
second stage, when Achim Mortl lost control under heavy braking
and slid backwards into a bridge.
Markko Martin ended the day in fifth after a few minor mishaps
but was still ahead of Jesus Puras and Cedric Robert. Martin had
slid into a wall briefly on SS10, and then he felt that the
sizeable corner cuts required on SS12 weren't well suited to the
Focus. Colin McRae lost time with differential control problems
in the morning, but with a clean run on SS11 and SS12 he was able
to put pressure on Freddy Loix for eighth overall. He grabbed
that position when the Belgian slid off on the day's last stage.
McRae said: "The best we can hope for now - unless someone in
front has a problem - is to hold position and score manufacturers
points but it's going to be a tall order to score in the drivers'
series now."
Harri Rovanpera had brought the semi-works 206 up to 9th place,
46 seconds ahead of Francois Delecour in the sole remaining
Mitsubishi. The team had elected to withdraw Alister McRae from
the event overnight on medical grounds. The Scot crashed while
mountain biking last week and he was clearly exhausted by the end
of the day's action. Delecour meanwhile, lost time with a lack
of turbo boost in the opening stage but the French driver fixed
the problem himself before the following stage and kept his
Lancer on the fringes of the top 10 before the late problems
which befell Toni Gardemeister and Freddy Loix promoted him. Delecour said: "The problem this morning was frustrating
because we've shown since then that we can do times good enough
to fight with the guys who are running near us. I still think
that we've made a good improvement with the car for this event -
of course there is a lot of work to do, but I believe we've seen
a step forward so far."
At Skoda Toni Gardemeister had enjoyed a clean run to inch into the
top 10. But in the last stage of the day, he slid off the road
and out of the event. Team-mates Kenneth Eriksson and Roman
Kresta arrived back in Sanremo in 11th and 12th respectively.
Hyundai's Freddy Loix had started the day in ninth overall and
despite feeling that his car was slower on long uphill stretches
than it was during the pre-event test, he had retained eighth
overall as he entered the final pair of stages. However, he then
slid off on the final stage, hitting a low wall and causing
extensive left-rear suspension damage to his Accent. He struggled
back to service in Imperia on three wheels and a brake disc, but
he'd dropped more than 20 minutes in the incident. Loix said: "It
was a downhill section and quite slippery, because the surface
was a little damp. As I turned into a corner the front wheels
slipped, like I was having understeer, but then it found grip and
we went straight into the crash barrier. I tried to avoid it but
like Armin yesterday, we hit a rear wheel and broke a bolt. We
strapped the wheel on to get to the end of the stage but we had
to go very slowly. It was my mistake and it's a great shame for
everyone in the team."
LEG THREE
Thirty six crews set out to cover the 327.28km, including 88.02km on four
special stages, and Gilles Panizzi overcame any nagging pains
from his injured shoulder to tick off the day's four remaining
stages and win the Rallye Sanremo for the third year in
succession. The Frenchman and his navigator, brother Hervé, used
the stage split to ensure that their times matched those of
Marcus Grönholm. Panizzi said: "I'm delighted. This was a
difficult victory because my shoulder injury made me quite tired
and it's always harder to concentrate in that situation. I had a
lot of pressure from Philippe Bugalski in the early stages and
then Marcus was always there, too. But the car has been perfect
for me - everyone in the whole Peugeot team has done a very good
job."
Grönholm settled for second overall at the finish, extending his
advantage in the drivers' world championship. Grönholm said: "If
it had been wet this morning then maybe I would have had a chance
to catch up with Gilles, but in the dry I knew it would be
impossible. We're very close to his speed on asphalt but there
are just a few places where he still has a little bit more speed.
Of course, though, this result is good for me in the
championship."
Peugeot Total Team Director Corrado Provera said: "We're totally
happy. What Gilles and Hervé have done here is quite remarkable,
especially with Gilles's injury. The championships are not
mathematically guaranteed yet but we would be crazy if we lost
them from this position."
Petter Solberg had started the day's four stages knowing that
he'd need to push to fend off a charging Richard Burns, but
fastest time on the day's opening test was enough to ease the
pressure slightly. Even in the afternoon's warmer conditions,
where Solberg might lose out against Burns, he was able to fend
off the Englishman to secure a podium finish, albeit 1min 6sec
behind the winner. Solberg said: "I'm really, really happy. The
first thing is that we've had a clean, reliable run with no
problems from the car whatsoever. The second thing is that we've
found some improvements in the set-up, just by making small
changes as the rally went on, and we gained some more speed
because of that. And finally, I'm really glad to have been able
to push, get involved in a fight with Richard and still come out
with a podium finish."
Burns was only able to take a few seconds from Solberg, but in the
end the reigning world champion had to settle for fourth
overall, a result that moves him up to second in the drivers'
standings. He said: "If we'd been 10 seconds behind this morning
we would have had a better chance, but with 20 seconds to make up
it was too much. At least I've worked out why we lost speed
earlier in the event."
Markko Martin had known that he'd have to push hard to make any
impact on Burns, but when the Englishman eked out a few more
seconds in the opening stages, the young Estonian elected to aim
for a 5th place finish, two points for himself and three
crucial points for Ford in the manufacturers' series. Martin
said: "I'm quite pleased and maybe a little surprised with how
well it's all gone here. We clearly found a good set-up for the
car and we've had no real problems either. I had hoped to fight
Petter because we were on the same pace as him in the early
stages but he found more speed and we couldn't match him.
Jesus Puras and Cedric Robert maintained their places in 6th and
7th respectively, and Colin McRae who had started more than a
minute and a half behind Robert backed off and cruised to finish
in eighth, scoring two manufacturers' points for Ford but ceding
a further six to Grönholm in the race for the drivers'
championship. McRae said: "We didn't really have anything to gain
by taking big risks today so we just had a steady run. The car's
clearly better on asphalt, as we've seen from Markko's times, but
the gap is still there to the Peugeots. We can just concentrate
on trying to win the last three rallies now, because the
championship chances are practically gone."
A further minute back from McRae came Harri Rovanpera in 9th, and
Francois Delecour secured the final top ten place. Delecour had
adopted a cautious strategy to secure a valuable manufacturers'
point for Mitsubishi, which lifted the Japanese manufacturer above
Skoda in the makes' series. Delecour said: "We had to make sure
we reached the finish today, because there was the chance of a
point for Mitsubishi and maybe we didn't expect to get that on
this rally. I'm really happy that we have moved above Skoda now,
but at the same time it was frustrating to lose so much time with
the turbo problems that we had, because if we hadn't had that
then I know we could have been fighting two or three places
higher up the field."
Both Skoda's drivers, Kenneth Eriksson and Roman Kresta, had
little to gain but experience and experimenting with driving
style and car set-ups they reached the finish in 11th and 12th.
Eriksson said: "We had a clean run today and I've still managed
to learn a lot about how differently you can drive on the
asphalt. But it's a shame that we haven't been able to score a
point for Skoda - we just weren't quick enough to do that.
However, there are three good events coming up where the Octavia
should be a stronger package."
Roman Kresta added: "I found the roads here very difficult.
Sometimes the surface has lots of grip and then it will change,
even in the same corner, to very slippery. I know I could have
been quicker in places but the idea was always to get a good look
at the stages and learn more about the Octavia on asphalt, and
we've done that."
After his accident and substantial time loss on leg two,
Hyundai's Freddy Loix knew he'd have to treat the day's four
stages as an extended test session. The Belgian played with the
anti-roll bar settings on his Accent throughout the day,
adjusting it between stages to experience as many options as
possible. He finished 28th overall.
Loix said: "It was a shame that we lost so much time in the
accident last night - I feel really bad for everyone in the team,
because we have clearly made some more progress and found some
more performance. Today was all about trying some new things,
some different settings and experimenting. After the time loss
yesterday, position didn't really matter. I'm not even going to
talk about the next round in New Zealand and what we might
achieve there - I'm just going to go there, try my best and see
what happens."
RESULT
1 Panizzi /Panizzi Peugeot 4h 10m 15.6
2 Grönholm/Rautiainen Peugeot +20.9sec
3 Solberg / Mills Subaru +1m 06.4
4 Burns / Reid Peugeot +1m 18.9
5 Martin / Park Ford +1m 54.9
6 Puras / Marti Citroen +2m 39.3
7 Robert / Biedon Peugeot +3m 01.3
8 C. McRae /Grist Ford +5m 17.5
9 Rovanperä/Pietilainen Peugeot +6m 18.9
10 Delecour/Grataloup Mitsubishi +7m 24.4
Drivers Championship
1. Grönholm (FIN) 57
2. Burns (GB) 34
3. C. McRae (GB) 33
4. Panizzi (F) 31
5. Sainz (E) 26
6. Solberg (N) 23
7= Loeb (F) 18
7= Rovanperä (FIN) 18
9. Mäkinen (FIN) 15
10. Martin (EE) 12
Manufacturers Championship
1. Peugeot 131pts
2. Ford 86
3. Subaru 46
4. Mitsubishi 9
5. Skoda 8
6. Hyundai 6
Next Round: New Zealand October 3rd - 6th
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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