The 2004 World Rally Championship season kicked off on the 22nd of January in Monaco when more than forty crews crossed the ramp in the legendary Casino Square. However, only ten works cars and three world champions were among them - not a very impressive number in comparison with previous years. This is the consequence of radical innovations that completely changed the shape of WRC for this season: introduction of the "Mille Pistes" system, reduction of the number of points-scoring drivers in manufacturers' championship and addition of two new events (Japan and Mexico).
As a result, only five works teams have been registered for the full championship. Hyundai pulled out of WRC before the end of
2003 because of lack of good results and financial disputes with MSD (the British company that prepared the Accent WRC). Then Skoda decided to carry out a programme of selected European events only in 2004 with the emphasis on development of the Fabia WRC, which replaced the Octavia in the middle of last season, but failed to show decent speed. Following this decision, former champion Didier Auriol left the Czech team and was replaced by Armin Schwarz, who recently drove for Hyundai, but was a star in the Skoda camp in 1999-2001. The first appearance for Schwarz and Skoda's regular driver Toni Gardemeister in 2004 will be the Acropolis Rally early in June, so up to that time we'll follow a five-way battle for this year's World Championship between Subaru, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Ford.
Monte Carlo, the oldest and most prestigious event of the calendar, saw the debut of the brand-new World Rally Cars from Peugeot and Mitsubishi, and it was Marcus Gronholm's red and white 307 WRC, which won the first stage it ever contested! The first special stage of the event was cancelled due to spectator overcrowding, but the Finn was fastest on SS2 beating the nearest rival by almost ten seconds. On the penultimate stage of day one Marcus went on to set another fastest time, so there's no doubt about the performance of the new Peugeot; what about its reliability? Just three kilometres from the end of SS4 Gronholm's 307 WRC became jammed in 3rd gear and Marcus was lucky to leave the stage with his lead intact.
However, the double world champion lost this slender lead on the final test of the day. Patches of snow, slush, standing water, ice and dry tarmac all conspired to make tyre choice as difficult as ever on the Monte Carlo Rally. On SS6 Gronholm made the wrong choice losing almost half a minute and relinquishing his lead to Sebastian Loeb. After a cautious start, the Frenchman was able to increase his pace steadily throughout the day concluding it with a victory on the
Rosans-L'Epine test. At the end of leg one Seb had 18 seconds lead over Gronholm and Markko Martin, who experienced brake problems on his Ford Focus WRC during the final two stages.
Considering the unpredictable weather and the accuracy required to perfect narrow tricky roads in French Alps, Loeb's advantage over his rivals wasn't comfortable, but in fact the battle for the top spot was over. Sebastian upheld his fearsome reputation on the Monte Carlo Rally by extending his lead to one and a half minutes after the five stages that made up the second leg. While the opening test of the day was halted due to Nicolas Vouilloz's crash half way through the stage, and the penultimate test was cancelled once again on safety grounds, the overnight leader smashed the opposition by winning another three special stages including the 28.39km
Sigale - Col de Bleine test, which proved a decisive point in the event.
"It was a very slow but very slippery corner," said Marcus Gronholm, who lost time by sliding off the road for 40 seconds. "You could have got around it quicker by walking, but we just understeered off. The reason why we lost the time was that it took a while to find reverse gear." The Finn wasn't the only victim of that corner: Loeb's team-mate Carlos Sainz spun at the same place as Gronholm ripping off a front wheel of the Citroen Xsara WRC and sending him into retirement. Subaru new boy Mikko Hirvonen, lying eighth, blotted his copybook by crashing his Impreza WRC. The final casualty of SS9 was ninth-placed Roman Kresta (driving a privately-entered Hyundai Accent WRC) who stopped with a broken gearbox.
The ninth special stage was perfect for neither of Ford's drivers. Martin spun at the same point as Gronholm and Sainz clipping a wall and flattening his car's exhaust. Fortunately it didn't pull a wheel off like Carlos, but Markko had a big scare and it affected his confidence for the rest of the stage. Unlike his team's leader, Francois Duval was flying throughout the second day. Belgian was just 0.1 seconds slower than Sebastian Loeb on the
Tourette du Chateau - Saint Antonin test and despite a spin (which cost him about half a minute) set the second-best time on SS9 to climb from an overnight fifth to second position.
However, Martin wasn't too far off and began the final day of the rally with a stunning victory on the legendary
Col de Turini test. The late rally battle for second place between Ford team-mates was resolved only in the final segment of the last stage, when the Estonian, who already had a two-second advantage over Duval, made up a near three-second deficit to the Belgian and turned it into a five-second advantage! "It's been an incredibly tough rally," said Martin. "We've had snow, ice and fog and these Monte-type conditions are quite new to me so to finish second is much more than I expected. This weekend has been playing on my nerves for a long time."
Marcus Gronholm, who concentrated on having a clean run and making no mistakes on Sunday, managed to stay pretty close to the Ford duo and finished in style by winning the final stage of the rally. The second Peugeot 307 WRC, driven by Freddy Loix, was fifth in final classification, but nearly seven minutes behind Gronholm's car. Nevertheless, Peugeot Sport principal Corrado Provera declared himself satisfied with the team's work during the season-opener. "We started with two cars and both have come back to us in a good points-scoring position," he said. "Marcus could have been better placed had he not gone off on Saturday, but he did very well considering that this is a rally he has never liked. Freddy dropped some time on the opening day, but the time he lost on the final day with snow tyres was our fault."
Gilles Panizzi finished sixth overall to give the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC04 a satisfying finish on its first event, while reigning world champion Petter Solberg, who was on course for fifth place, dropped back to seventh on the final day with front suspension damage. The final championship point was scored by Swiss crew of Olivier Burri and Jean-Philippe Patthey in the private Subaru Impreza WRC. Tenth place for Nicolas Bernardi (1st place in Super 1600 category driving the ORECA-prepared Renault Clio) was the first time a Junior WRC contender has finished in the top 10 of a WRC event.
Alexander Toropov - 23 Mar 2004
