1999 RALLY OF CORSICA

During the last two stages on Saturday a little rain fell - answered prayers? It made no difference to the charging Bugalski who set the fastest times on both tests. McRae took advantage of the conditions however, closing to within three seconds of Sainz in third place. By the end of the day's action Auriol had moved into the points in fifth place while Richard Burns moved his Subaru Impreza into sixth slot.

Sunday and a new day dawned for World Rallying. This was the day that would see championship points being awarded to the fastest person through the live televised final 9 mile stage. The days stages had already been run on the opening day so the crews were familiar with the roads. Bugalski proved this by significantly improving his times over those set by him on Friday. It started out a good day for McRae in the Focus. By the time he reached the final televised stage he had moved up to third position 2 tenths of a second ahead of Sainz. It was going to be a close finish, but McRae's confidence was high despite having difficulty keeping his Focus in gear. This was to be his undoing during the sprint through the stage. The car jumped out of gear causing it to slide. The corrective action was enough to drop the Focus driver back to fourth overall but more importantly, it denied him any points available for the fastest stage time.

Bugalski may have emerged the winner but many questions hang over F2 Kit Cars competing with WRC machines and the impact on the sport of the controversial points scoring for the live televised stages. Makinen now leads the championship by one point from Auriol, with McRae in third, six points off the lead. The WRC teams may now look forward to the Rally of Argentina on May 23rd and the absence of the F2 cars!