Fourth place, after making sure of finishing

Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen's target in Rally Argentina was to get their car to the finish. Their result of this season so far was a number of retirements. Little did it help that all three of them had taken place while they were fighting for podium positions. In Turkey, Rovanperä was in fact leading the rally when he was forced to retire.

In previous editions of Rally Argentina, Rovanperä had reached a group win in 1997 with his 2-litre Seat. After that, technical problems had made him retire four times, two of which with Seat and two with Peugeot.

Taking into consideration this background, Rovanperä and Pietiläinen's this years performance was excellent. Despite the tyre problems of the beginning, Harri was second overall at his best. After the steering problems of the second day, he thought it wise just to make sure to get to the finish and thus secure the success of Peugeot team. In drivers' world championship, Rovanperä is now 11th with the 5 points he scored in Argentina.

Fourth in the opening leg, with many tyre problems
- a stage fastest time saved the day
Rally Argentina started on Thursday with short super specials. On Friday, Rovanperä had to take the start of the opening stage (SS 3, El Reposo 1, 10,03 km) with a flat rear tyre. On the stage, also a front tyre was damaged, but Harri finished the stage fourth, anyway, only 3,6 seconds slower than his team mate Marcus Grönholm. On the following stages, Harri's positions varied between 5th and 9th. He suffered several punctures and was also hampered by the dust raised by the previous drivers.

- There has been a lot going on. The gap is too big already, Rovanperä said in the service break after stage 6. - Stage timing is a total fiasco, so I don't know exactly where we are standing at this point. The problem is that we have to start behind all the others, so the roads are in quite bad condition. We have had tyre damages on every stage. Ruts and rocks prevent us from choosing the quickest driving lines.

On the second stage after the service (SS 8, La Cumbre 1, 23,48 km), Rovanperä managed to clock the stage win, even if he once again had suffered a puncture. On the next stage he had yet another one, and in addition, he stalled his car at the start. Over just two stages, Rovanperä moved up from 8th to 2nd. Posting the third fastest time on the following stage (SS 10, El Reposo-Los Sauces 2), he remained second overall. His gap to the leader at that point, Carlos Sainz of Citroen, was merely half a minute. Breathing in his neck, though, inside six seconds, were Markko Märtin, Ford, Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, and Richard Burns, Peugeot. The second loop of stages completed, Harri in his fourth place was the best Finnish driver.

- I think we suffered eight punctures, but otherwise the car is working brilliantly, so we still have good chances of doing well. Actually finishing this rally is so important for us that we won't do anything foolish, Rovanperä told.

Leg 1, 13 stages/176,9 km, situation after SS 13/25
1. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, 1h54'01,2", 92.2 km/h
2. Markko Märtin, Ford, + 00'22,4"
3. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 00'40,1"
4. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 00'41,8"
5, Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, + 00'50,2"
6. Marcus Grönholm, Peugeot, +01'04,0"
7. Francois Duval, Ford, + 02'38,3"
8. Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 02`43,3"

Second day: waiting for opportunities, troubles with steering
Saturday in Rally Argentina was a sad day for the drivers. The first two stages were cancelled, even if some of the drivers had already driven through the stage. The schedules didn't hold because of all the fuss and finally the last two stages of the day were postponed until Sunday so that the drivers wouldn't need to drive in the dark on the dusty roads. Rovanperä finished the stages in positions between 6th and 8th, and dropped momentarily down to sixth overall, being finally fifth at the end of the leg, after stage 20.

- What a frustrating day. Cancellation of stages and delays got on everybody's nerves. When we finally were allowed to drive, we lost our protection armor on stage 16. On the next stage, the steering got somehow stiff, it didn't return well. That caused inconvenience on the following two stages as well, but we were able to fix it at the service. That aside, we are just driving without taking any risks, because we really would like to make it to the end this time.

Leg 2, 6 stages/98 km, situation after SS 20/25
1. Markko Märtin, Ford, 3h01'02,6" (90.8 km/h)
2. Marcus Grönholm, Peugeot, + 00'15,2"
3. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 00'23,3"
4. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 00'26,6"
5. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 01'21,4"
6. Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 02'49,3"
7. Francois Duval, Ford, + 04'22,8"
8. Armin Schwarz, Hyundai, + 05'09,8"

Fourth over the finish line, securing a good position
The last leg comprised also the two stages not run the day before, which made the final day long enough. Anyhow, this time the stages were completed and the battle over the top positions was on. When talking about the victory, it was settled already on the first stage of Sunday when oil pressure in Markko Märtin's car dropped down. After that, nothing could stop Peugeot and Marcus Grönholm from taking the win. The fight for the second place wasn't clear until the final stage where Richard Burns's Peugeot suffered turbo problems and Carlos Sainz scored a valuable second place for Citroen. The only goal for Harri Rovanperä, ever since the halfway of the rally, had been to cross the finish line and to secure Peugeot's success even in case something would happen to the world champion of the team. Problems with tyres and steering cost so much that even with Burns having turbo problems, the difference was too big to be reached. Eventually Rovanperä was over a minute off a podium finish.

- I am satisfied, especially with the fact that we made it to the finish after a long time. We were second overall at our best, so I'm sure our speed would have been good as well. We have to be happy with the fourth place, as that means for us finally getting this rallying season launched. I can hardly wait the rally in Greece, because there we have all the chances of finishing on the podium, an apparently relieved Rovanperä assured.

Leg 3, 5 stages, 94 km, final results after SS 25/25
1. Marcus Grönholm, Peugeot, 4h14'45,0" (89.3 km/h)
2. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 00'26,6"
3. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 01'12,8"
4. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 02'19.3"
5. Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 03'11,4"
6. Didier Auriol, Skoda, + 07'58,5"
7. Toni Gardemeister, Skoda, + 08'33,7"
8. Francois Duval, Ford, + 11'55,3"