 Neste Rally Finland 2002 review. Story by Simon Spode.
The Peugeot team put on a gravel master class in Finland that
left the other works teams scratching their heads, and if it
hadn't been for misfortune striking then the dominance of the
silver cars would have been complete.
As it was, Marcus Grönholm stepped up to take his third Rally
Finland title, 1min 27sec ahead of team-mate Richard Burns and
with a clearly delighted Petter Solberg in third place.
Finland is perceived by many as the home of rallying, and
provides some of the most spectacular action seen during the year. It is
a technically challenging event requiring a driving style matched
nowhere else in the world, and local experience has in the past
proved the key to success. Wide and flowing roads on an almost
tarmac-like smooth gravel surface are combined with awesome
jumps, famous the world over. With average speeds topping 130
kph, the challenge is enormous and the spectacle breathtaking.
Centimetre precision is required to ensure the correct line
through fast corners and over blind crests, immense bravery a
significant factor as the crews race through stunning forest
scenery and around the many lakes that gave the event its
original name of the 1000 Lakes Rally. Testament to the challenge
is the fact that just two non-Nordic drivers have won in over 50
years.
The 52nd Rally Finland was once again based in Jyväskylä and
kicked off with the start and a 2.06 kilometre super special
stage on the evening of Thursday 8 August. The crews headed into
the forests on Friday morning for nine special stages
covering 128.61 competitive kilometres. The second leg was the
longest of the three and while there are only six stages, the
176.65 competitive kilometre route included some of the longest
stages of the rally. The final day of competition included two
loops of three stages covering 94.36 kilometres. The Paviljonki
centre hosted Rally Headquarters, Parc Ferme and the Service Park
for all three days. The 2002 Rally Finland covered a total of 22
special stages and 401.68 competitive kilometres in a total
distance of 1,703.32 kilometres before the finish on the
afternoon of Sunday 11 August.
LEG ONE
The preparations for Peugeot had been far from straightforward as
within the space of a few days they lost Harri Rovanpera's co-
driver Risto Pietilainen following an operation on a vascular
aneurysm, and also Gilles Panizzi to a fall off a stepladder at
home resulting in damage to his shoulder which would force his
withdrawal from Finland and perhaps more importantly his
participation on the tarmac in Germany.
From the outset Richard Burns made his intentions clear with
victory on the first Super Special stage, and by the end of the first
leg the intentions of the whole Peugeot team were clear - total
domination of the leader board was their goal.
With championship leader Marcus Grönholm suffering from being
first on the road, Burns took full advantage and with stage wins
on six of the ten stages in leg one, the Briton had established a
lead of 12sec over his Finnish team-mates.
Next up was Harri Rovanpera who having swapped places with Marcus
Grönholm throughout the day, took advantage of Gronholm
experiencing damper problems to eke out a 10sec advantage. Marcus
said: "Today has been very tough with all the loose gravel, but
tomorrow is another day," he said. "I couldn't avoid hitting a
stone on the penultimate stage, which broke the shock absorber.
That was disappointing but I actually thought I would lose more
than the 15 seconds that I did. It will be nicer tomorrow when
I'm not first on the road!"
For a large part of the leg Peugeot held all four top places as
rising Finnish star Juuso Pykalisto driving a customer-
specification 206 consistently set top-three until a
transmission failure on stage six forced him to retire.
Subaru's Petter Solberg was the first non-Peugeot driver back to
Parc Ferme, the young Norwegian pleased with his efforts. Petter
said, "Everything has worked well - it's not been bad at all.
We've been reliable and the feeling in the car overall is good.
It's OK being in the position of the best non-Peugeot driver but
I want to fight with the best."
Fifth place was the best Ford could muster in the shape of Colin
McRae (1min 16sec behind Burns), and McRae ended the day puzzled
about the relative performance of the competing cars. "We're
going as fast as possible but we can't match the times of the
three Peugeot drivers at the top of the leader board," said McRae.
"The Focus feels great but the data shows we're losing time
progressively rather than in any specific places. If it wasn't
for the top three cars we'd all be having quite a nice battle
here!"
One place back in sixth was the second Ford of Carlos Sainz.
Sainz had tried revised suspension settings during the morning
but found that they gave too much roll on the car and reverted
back to the original settings. The changes worked and Sainz
climbed from 10th to sixth over the afternoon stages, setting
fastest time on the final test, a repeat of the super special at
Killeri. "In the end it wasn't a bad day. We're only two seconds
behind Colin and the fight is still quite open. I'm surprised
we're so far behind the leading three cars. It's quite perplexing
really because the whole team was confident and hoping for much
more." The third works Ford of Markko Martin ended the day in
10th.
Tommi Makinen finished leg one in eighth place, one behind
Peugeot privateer Sebastien Lindholm. Makinen had put in a good
performance all day but had struggled to find the speed and power
from his Impreza. Tommi said. "For me, it's not been such a good
day today. We have had no problems with the car or tyres, but
something is missing and I've been unable to get the performance
I want. All we can do now is have a look at things tonight, see
if we can make any changes and hope for a better day tomorrow."
At Hyundai, Freddy Loix was once again the team's quickest
driver, ending the day in ninth place overall, whilst team-mate
Juha Kankkunen was eleventh. The third Accent WRC of Armin
Schwarz was down in 15th place having struggled to come to terms
with the Finnish gravel.
Mitsubishi Ralliart had launched their latest evolution of the
Lancer in Finland, and early indications didn't seem to show much
improvement as they struggled to match the pace of the front-runners. Overnight Jani Paasonen was best placed in 12th spot
(2 minutes off the leader). Alister McRae had experienced a few
problems during the day and twice suffered a broken damper, which
dropped him to 17th place. "The car is a lot easier to drive than
the old one and tomorrow we'll be pushing hard, trying to improve
our times," said McRae.
François Delecour suffered a disappointing retirement in SS9. "We
don't know exactly what happened, but there were a couple of
problems before that," said François. "We lost the power steering
when a pipe joint came loose and the fluid leaked out, but we
fixed this quite quickly. Then in stage nine we lost all the
power steering oil and then when we landed after a small jump,
the suspension on the front left corner collapsed."
Skoda was also finding the going tough with their revised
Octavia WRC. Kenneth Eriksson had begun the day well but was
forced to retire after SS6 with fuel starvation problems. A
malfunctioning fuel jet made him run out of fuel on the road
section back to the service park. They stopped only two
kilometres from the service area and the problem was impossible
to fix. Toni Gardemeister ended the day in 15th place overnight.
"The only disadvantage is that tomorrow I will be first on the
road, therefore 'sweeping' the surface for the others. Still I
will go as fast as possible. If you see the difference between
the cars in front and us, we can still improve a lot." Toni
pronounced himself happy with the newly homologated Skoda Octavia
WRC. Only a small problem with the centre differential cost him
time on SS6.
After their strong showing on recent gravel events Citroen
struggled. Thomas Radstrom made it into the top ten on three
occasions, but spent most of his day outside the top ten, and
eventually finished leg one in 14th place. Team-mate Sebastien
Loeb also found the going tough, and finished up in 16th place.
LEG TWO
Fifty of the original 77 starters departed a bright and sunny
Jyväskylä for the second and longest leg of the rally. Ahead were
classic Finnish rally stages - wide, flowing roads, with an
endless stream of huge jumps over blind crests requiring total
commitment from the world's best rally drivers.
Peugeot began the day with a lock on the podium, but by the time
the cars reached Parc Ferme in the evening they were down to only
two cars. Rally leader Richard Burns made clear his intention
with a stage win on the day's first, SS11, but his push to extend
his lead further would cost him dear on the next stage.
Burns' 206 WRC landed heavily after one of the characteristic
flat-out jumps on the famous Ouninpohja test. The impact broke
the turbo intercooler, and Richard had to complete the stage
without boost. He also picked up 20 seconds of road penalties for
leaving service late after his mechanics struggled to repair the
damage. Richard said: "My problem was very unfortunate as
normally you take that jump flat-out. This time, the back of the
car kicked up so the nose hit the ground hard. I'm very
disappointed as we'd been going well, but at least we were able
to get straight back to service and solve the problem."
The delays dropped Burns to third and with a fastest time Harri
Rovanpera became the new leader. Any joy the Finn felt soon
evaporated as he was forced to retire after breaking a wheel on
the very next stage. Rocks 14km from the start of the stage
caused a puncture, but the situation rapidly deteriorated when
the flailing rubber damaged the shock absorbers and eventually
the suspension. By the end of the 40km stage the front-right
corner of the car was so badly damaged that Harri was unable to
continue. "It's a real pity," Harri said. "We were in an
excellent position, and the stones we hit were no different to
many stones we have run over before on this rally. We have been
very unlucky and lost what I am sure would have been a very good
result."
This left Grönholm to inherit the lead with the added bonus of a
1 minute cushion over the recovering Burns and the two Peugeots
again dominated the times; Grönholm ended the day with a 1 minute
34 second lead. Marcus said: "The set-up of the car feels really good
now, and I've got the confidence to push hard. This morning I
didn't have so much feeling in the rear of the car and I lost a
bit of confidence. The stages today suited me and the Peugeot
very well, and if we continue like this I am hopeful we can be
successful tomorrow."
Meanwhile back in the 'other' Rally Finland there had also been
action. Subaru's Petter Solberg started the day in fourth place
but with a poor tyre choice the two Fords behind overhauled him
and he ended up in fifth place overnight. He said: "It's been a
good day and I'm happy. I chose tyres that were a bit too soft
for the conditions on the first two sections, but the last two
stages were very good - the whole package worked very well on the
harder surface. It's disappointing that we lost time with the
spin on the last one, but for tomorrow I'll be looking to catch
Carlos and Colin again."
The Focus WRCs had not put a foot wrong but were still off the
pace of the Peugeots. Colin McRae, who took a break after 15
hours behind the wheel to allow Grist to drive the final liaison
section, was happy with his day's work. "It's been very long and
tiring but has been relatively plain sailing for us," he said.
"The stages were so fast that you have to be really confident in
both the pace notes and the car to be able to attack them
properly. We were at 100 per cent all day, without taking any
chances, and we'll do the same again tomorrow."
Sainz was also content with the day. "I've had a good battle with
Solberg today and the key to tomorrow will be keeping him behind
us. It will be difficult to catch Colin because the gap is quite
large but I'll push hard and see what happens. We can't match the
speed of the leading two drivers; their pace is quite
unbelievable. But if Colin and I can finish third and fourth
behind them it would be good points for Ford."
Markko Martin had made steady progress throughout the day,
cheered on by a large contingent of fans from Estonia. He
finished 6th with his only trouble coming on SS13, the longest
stage of the rally, when the anti-deflation system broke in his
Focus' front right tyre. "There were some very fast sections in
the stage and the vibration was so bad it was hard to focus
clearly at times," said Martin.
Subaru's Tommi Makinen moved from ninth to seventh place, after
putting in times which were consistently in the top ten, although
his place was under threat from privateer Lindholm who continued
to show the benefits of Peugeot power.
Overall it had been a good day at Mitsubishi. Jani Paasonen moved
up to 9th position, overtaking Freddy Loix and Janne Tuohino
despite a poor road position. Alister McRae had also moved up the
leader board to 14th position, but a trouble-free run was
scuppered when they were forced to stop and put out a fire in the
final stage. "One of the rear dampers broke after hitting a rock
and fluid leaked onto the brakes or exhaust, which caused a
fire," said Alister. "We stopped and put it out, but by the time
we'd done this and changed the wheel, we'd lost a lot of time.
Before this, we'd been having a good day."
The Hyundai Accents of Freddy Loix and Armin Schwarz also made
steady progress with Loix ending his day in tenth place, while
Schwarz improved to 15th. Loix had found the going more difficult
as brake problems, together with handling issues had posed
problems for the Belgian ace. As Loix explained, "It has been a
frustrating day especially as we had hoped to attack hard on the
stages because it suits my style. First we had brake problems,
then handling with the car stepping out in the corners and I just
don't think we can fix all the problems for tomorrow."
Juha Kankkunen in the third Accent had a premature end to his
rally when he rolled his car two kilometres into the day's first
stage. He said: "I was really looking forward to the stages today
- I know them well and I like driving them so it is a real pity.
We decided this morning to really go for it - there's really no
point here if you don't try. The roll happened in the short
twisty section. We slid wide and the rear wheel dropped into a
deep ditch. It got caught and the car went onto its roof in the
middle of the road. The car was driveable but the damage was too
great to continue."
The Citroen Xsaras of Thomas Radstrom and Sebastien Loeb
experienced a problem-free day and returned to Jyväskylä in 12th
and 13th positions respectively. On what amounted to a live test
session the team's engineers concentrated on improving the cars
performance and trying various options on both suspension and
transmission settings.
Skoda's Toni Gardemeister didn't have the best of days. Having
started the day in 13th place, Gardemeister found himself down in
15th at the close.
LEG THREE
As things stood at the end of leg two the result of the rally
appeared to be a forgone conclusion, and so it turned out as
despite Richard Burns taking three stage times in an effort to
close the gap, it was Marcus Grönholm who took a home win for the
third consecutive year.
Grönholm said. "It's very good for the championship. Everything
went to plan. It felt much better once I set up the car with my
favourite settings", whilst Burns added: "You can't really judge
anything that happened after our problem yesterday. It was a
frustrating rally because I felt my first victory for Peugeot
should have happened here. But it was a very useful rally for the
gravel events in New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain. I know
more about how to drive the car on these surfaces."
Colin McRae and Nicky Grist were looking like a strong third
place finish when a spectacular fire ended their rally with just
two speed tests remaining. Investigations by the team indicated
the fire had been caused by a large rock which flattened the
exhaust and smashed the rear differential and leaking oil dripped
onto the hot exhaust.
"About 700 metres from the end we started to smell something and
by the time we reached the stop line there was thick black smoke
in the cockpit," said McRae. "We couldn't see or breathe. We
leaped out and the whole of the rear of the car from the back
wheels onwards was on fire. We tried to put the flames out but
every time we thought we'd done it, they re-ignited. Eventually a
fire tender arrived and put the fire out with foam.
"Thinking back, we saw people waving us down for the last couple
of kilometres of the stage but we thought they were just
enthusiastic fans. It's so disappointing because everything had
gone so well. The car ran perfectly all rally, the pace notes
were good and it's even more frustrating because we were so close
to the finish. Third would have been a good result, one we would
have settled for before the start," added the Scot.
This left the final podium spot to Petter Solberg, who said:
"It's a very, very good result! I'm very happy; my feeling is
that on this rally third place is like a victory! I pushed hard
all day and had the right tyre choice, everything worked
perfectly but I knew that it would be a tough fight with Carlos
and it was certainly close. I can't tell you how nervous I was
feeling at the start line on the last stage. The guys in the team
have done an excellent job, everyone has worked flat out for
this."
Carlos Sainz, fourth overnight, had extended his slender
advantage over Petter Solberg on the day's opening special stage.
However, despite posting joint fastest time on the next test and
increasing his lead further, a 10 second penalty imposed for a
jump-start slashed the margin. Solberg beat Sainz through the
next test to reclaim fourth and held off the Spaniard over the
last three tests. The final difference was 4.2 seconds.
"After 15 years in rallying that's the first time I've ever made
a jump start," said Sainz. "I'm fed up with the penalty but it
was my mistake and that's life. I'm pleased to finish in the
points but disappointed not to beat Petter and amazed by the
speed of the winners. We have two asphalt events in front of us
now and that's going to be difficult but the whole team is
working hard to keep the improvements coming."
Markko Martin, unhappy with his car's set-up during the first
leg, was delighted with his final day's performance and fifth
place. Martin was the fastest driver on the final leg, having
been quickest on two of the six stages and second fastest on two
more, despite hurting his back after a heavy landing over one of
the day's many big jumps. "We've had great fun today, it was
really enjoyable," said the Estonian driver. "I'm disappointed
with my set-up mistakes earlier in the rally but hopefully I'll
know better next year. I'm happy to score points and the result
was even more important for Ford following Colin's retirement."
Tommi Makinen drove consistently hard and finished sixth overall,
claiming the final drivers points. He said: "It's been a
difficult rally for me and the result is disappointing. There's
something missing somewhere, we made some progress during the
rally here, but we'll be concentrating on making more
improvements before New Zealand."
Mitsubishi's new Step 2 Lancer continued to provide mixed
fortunes, and for Alister McRae this meant retirement on SS18
when his suspension broken. "Three kilometres into the second
stage this morning I felt something go at the back end," said
Alister. "We stopped to have a look, and a stone had obviously
hit the rear wishbone mount. Carrying on would have been
difficult for us and following crews, so we pulled over. It's a
shame for it to end like this; the car is definitely a step
forward. Now we're looking to Germany and hopefully we'll see
that the development work on the new car can move us forward
again."
His team-mate for the rally, Jani Paasonen, had a better
day. He began in ninth place and made steady progress throughout
the day finishing in the top ten four times. Eventually he made
his way to eighth place where he finished the rally.
Hyundai's Freddy Loix and Armin Schwarz both appeared to be
running better than they had the other two days. Loix, beginning
leg three in tenth place at first lost out to the Citroen of
Thomas Radstrom on the day's second stage, but after both McRae
and then Radstrom retired he was up into ninth place, and in the
final two stages posted top ten times, which kept him there.
Team-mate Schwarz also moved up the order from 15th to 13th
place.
Once again Citroen showed their potential for next year as both
cars were running strongly going into the last day. Fortunes
changed on the day's penultimate stage when Thomas Radstrom
crashed out of tenth place. The loss moved Sebastien Loeb up a
place, and he finished the rally in tenth place. "I have felt
much better with the car and the terrain since yesterday
afternoon," said Sebastien. "I guess this is what one calls
gaining experience..."
Skoda's sole surviving driver, Toni Gardemeister, also had a good
day with their revised car. Gardemeister progressed from 14th to
12th position during the course of the final day, and on three
occasions made it into the top ten. Looking back on the day, the
young Finn could not find fault with his new Evo Octavia: "The
car worked really well - it did not miss a beat. Top speed has
always been one of the Skoda's strong points and since the new
engine is more powerful the acceleration has improved a lot as
well. The handling of the car was fine, albeit with a little
oversteer, but there is nothing to be worried about."
Overall Classification
1. Gronholm-Rautiannen Peugeot 206 3h17'52"500 121.8 km/h
2. Burns-Reid Peugeot 206 + 01'27"30
3. P.Solberg-Mills Subaru Impreza + 02'49"60
4. Sainz-Moya Ford Focus +02'53"80
5. Martin-Park Ford Focus + 03'10"00
6. Makinen-Lindstrom Subaru Impreza + 04'34"10
7. Lindholm-Hantunen Peugeot 206 + 05'36"40
8. Paasonen-Kapanen Mitsubishi + 05'55"30
9. Loix-Smeets Hyundai Accent + 06'07"80
10. Loeb-Elena Citroen Xsara + 06'13"60
2002 World Rally Championship (Positions After Finland)
Drivers Championship
1. Marcus GRONHOLM 47pts
2. Colin MCRAE 30pts
3. Carlos SAINZ 26pts
4. Richard BURNS 25pts
5. Gilles PANIZZI 21pts
6. Petter SOLBERG 19pts
7. Harri ROVANPERA 18pts
8. Tommi MAKINEN 15pts
9. Marko MARTIN 9pts
10. Sebastien LOEB 8pts
Manufacturers Championship
1. PEUGEOT 99pts
2. FORD 74pts
3. SUBARU 40pts
4. SKODA 8pts
5. MITSUBISHI 7pts
6. HYUNDAI 6pts
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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