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Peugeot dominated, along with the Citroen Xsara. Picture by Peugeot.
Auriol managed third, beaten only by his team mate Panizzi and Loeb in the Citroen Xsara. Picture by Peugeot.
Carlos Sainz finished a fine fourth. Picture by Ford.
Travaglia gave Peugeot fifth place. Picture by Peugeot.
Francois Delecour finished off the top six in his Ford Focus RS. Picture by Ford.
Petter Solberg managed ninth place in the Subaru. Picture by Subaru.
Freddy Loix was the highest placed Mitsubishi. The new WRC car has a way to go to be competitive. Picture by Mitsubishi.
An unusual podium, but one we may well see in Corsica at the next round. Picture by Peugeot.


The 2001 San Remo Rally - review
Story by Andrew Frampton - October 2001.

Frenchman Gilles Panizzi took victory in the San Remo Rally of Italy, and with team-mate Didier Auriol claiming third, Peugeot scored a full complement of manufacturer's points. Citroen provided the most notable opposition, with rookie driver Sebastien Loeb the star. It was a poor event for the championship protagonists though.

Tommi Mäkinen (Mitsubishi) would once again lead the cars through the stages, as he had done in New Zealand the previous month. However, this time there was no gravel to clear, but a new WRC-spec Lancer to get used to. The Finn, who was sharing the joint championship lead in the driver's standings with Colin McRae, was looking for a competitive showing on its first event. However, the four-times world champion would struggle with a myriad of niggling problems on the first day, testament to the lack of testing that had been done on the car.

His loss, however, was not as great as Richard Burns', who having hauled himself into contention for the title with a win on the New Zealand Rally, slid off the road on the first stage in Italy. With Burns out it was left to the specialist asphalt drivers to take to the front. Panizzi and Citroen's Jesus Puras traded fastest times over the first four stages of the day. Their team-mates Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot) and Philippe Bugalski (Citroen) led the charge. Bugalski went on to set the fastest times on three of the day's four remaining stages - only broken by his team-mate Puras on SS6.

These stage wins helped lift Bugalski into third position overnight, despite having a damaging altercation with a wall on stage one. Puras led the field at the end of day one, but a 1.5 overnight advantage over Panizzi looked precarious. Didier Auriol held fourth position, ahead of Loeb and Gronholm, who had set three second fastest times, and was now only 36.7 seconds off the pace. The Ford Focus and its Pirelli tyres are no fans of asphalt, so it was a surprise to see Carlos Sainz and Francois Delecour in seventh and eighth overnight. Colin McRae, holding the joint championship lead, was struggling with gearbox and hydraulics problems, and ended the day in 13th.

With title-challenger Burns out, Subaru pinned their hopes on young Petter Solberg - he ended the day in tenth, while team-mate Markko Martin was one place further back. Mitsubishi would endure a torrid first day, with the cars of Mäkinen and Freddy Loix suffering from persistent ECU problems on the new Lancer. Neither broke into the top ten all day, with Mäkinen ending it in 14th, and Loix in 17th. Both Skoda and Hyundai lost a car on the first stage - Armin Schwarz suffering mechanical gremlins in his Octavia that meant he was unable to start SS2, and Piero Liatti, Hyundai's asphalt specials, crashing the car in that first stage.

Day 2 started bright and dry, and Puras continued his day one form - setting the fastest time through the first stage. However, by the end of the next, Citroen's dream of victory was over; Puras having crashed dramatically out of the rally on SS8, was joined in retirement by Bugalski, who having hit a wall, retired with suspension damage the following stage. Citroen's efforts now focussed on Loeb, the Frenchman competing in his first World Rally Event, after a competitive season in the supporting 1600 class. He didn't disappoint his new bosses, setting fastest times of stages 7B and 11B. Loeb and Auriol battled over second position, and despite fastest times of stages 8 and 11, Auriol would start behind the Citroen on day 3. Panizzi was fast throughout the second day, setting two fastest times as he extended his lead to 34.4 seconds overnight. Loeb's margin over Auriol was just 7.4 seconds, with Gronholm a solid fourth.

Despite a puncture, Carlos Sainz held fifth overnight , ahead of privateer and local hero Renato Travaglia in his Peugeot. Solberg had an impressive day in the points nominated Subaru, setting fastest time on SS9. However, damaging his suspension dropped him to eighth, behind Delecour. Another privateer, Simon Jean-Joseph was peddling his Peugeot to ninth place at the overnight service halt, ahead of some of the established works cars. McRae moved up a gear on day 2, and was in the top ten on every stage bar SS8, when an accident cost him 40 seconds. The Scot had moved up to tenth by the end of the day, ahead of championship rival Mäkinen, whose dreadful San Remo continued. Transmission problems were the major factor in his lack of progress on the second day. Team-mate Loix was no better off, the cars suffering from a lack of testing prior to the round. Joining Puras and Bugalski on the retirement list were Hyundai's Alister McRae and Subaru's Toshi Arai.

As the third day of the San Remo rally dawned, the roads were wet from overnight rain, and the conditions became worse throughout the day. Loeb started the first of the four remaining stages in the best possible way, by reducing the margin between him and Panizzi by 7.7 seconds. Although Sainz was fastest on SS14, Panizzi was only 0.6 seconds slower, and more importantly 6.7 seconds faster than Loeb, increasing his lead to over 30 seconds once again. On the second run through the morning's two stages, Loeb was fastest on the first, and with Panizzi only sixth, the gap between the two Frenchman was just 11.8 seconds going into the final stage. Panizzi was only tenth fastest through the final wet stage, but Loeb could only go 0.4 seconds faster, and victory went to Panizzi and his co-driver brother Herve.

It was a well deserved first victory of the season for the Panizzis, having won the San Remo rally in 2000. Loeb, on his one-event sabbatical from his 1600 Saxo, was delighted with second position in his first taste of the WRC. Auriol had a quiet final day, to take third in the Peugeot. This meant a maximum 16 manufacturer point haul for the French team, with Citroen not eligible for points this year. Sainz had an impressive final day in the un-fancied Focus, claiming 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th fastest times on the stages to earn fourth overall. Privateer Travaglia suffered in the conditions, and fell behind Sainz, but still took fifth position. Delecour took sixth position and the final championship points, helped by setting the fastest time of SS16.

The 2000 champion Marcus Gronholm once again missed out on the points, in a season that has yielded just 16 so far. He was one place ahead of the resurgent McRae, who claimed eight, although it was too little too late for championship points. He gained his position thanks to a last stage charge, which demoted Solberg and Jean-Joseph to ninth and tenth positions. Harri Rovanpera - driving a private Peugeot on this event was eleventh, ahead of Loix's Mitsubishi and Bruno Thiry's Skoda. The final day claimed its share of casualties, the most notable of which was Mäkinen, who ended his poor showing with three wheels. Markko Martin crashed his Subaru in a big way, while the third Skoda of Roman Kresta stopped with engine problems on the last stage.

The result of the San Remo had little effect on the championship positions, with Burns, Mäkinen and McRae all failing to score points. Only Sainz made up any ground, and his fourth place moved him ahead of Burns in the standings. Ford, however, moved clear of Mitsubishi in the lead of manufacturer's standing with seven points from Italy. Mitsubishi scored just one, with Loix being the seventh nominated points scorer back in twelfth. The championship continues its Asphalt theme, with the Corsica rally later this month.

Result:
1. Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (Peugeot)
2. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen) +11.4
3. Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet (Peugeot) +54.9
4. Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford) +1.11.9
5. Renato Travaglia/Flavio Zanella (Peugeot) +1.32.1
6. Francois Delecour/Daniel Grataloup (Ford) +2.28.6
7. Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (P'geot) +2.47.3
8. Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford) +3.53.7
9. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru) +3.59.9
10. Simon Jean-Jospeh/Jack Boyere (Peugeot) +4.01.5
11. Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot) +6.15.5
12. Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (Mitsubishi) +7.07.7


Relevant links:
The 2001 WRC season