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Winning pace slackened due to gear trouble and heat
Rovanperä's front position changed into securing the second place
Cyprus Rally, June 20-22, 2003
The seventh World Championship Rally of the season 2003 was competed in a sultry heat on bad Cyprus roads. The 51 crews taking the start had ahead of them a battle of survival of 18 special stages, comprising a total of 341 stage kilometers.
Hat trick took Rovanperä into the lead
- gearbox trouble dropped him down to second
On the opening day of the event, four stages were run, with a total of 99,8 km. Peugeot's Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen managed to find the top speed right from the start on.
- It was our intention to attack and take all the advantage our starting position was thought to offer. Loose sand was by the sides of the road when we were running, but on the other hand there were quite a few stones. On the long stage 2, the front tyres wore out far too quickly. At the halfday service we had to change the gearbox as the central lock and gear shift were not working properly.
Harri Rovanperä succeeded in performing a hat trick by scoring three consecutive stage wins, even if he no longer had the starting place advantage. After stage 3, Rovanperä led by a margin of 16,2 seconds over Peugeot's Gilles Panizzi. Team mate Marcus Grönholm was third and Subaru's Tommi Mäkinen fourth. Harri's gap to the fifth placed Petter Solberg, Subaru, was 23,9 seconds at that point.
On the rerun of the longest stage of the rally, Rovanperä wasn't able to hit yet another fastest time, due to his technical problems getting worse.
- At the beginning of stage 4, there was a heavy shower of rain. The road got slippery and we lost 15 seconds right there. But worse was to come, as the gears started to act up. Sometimes the second gear was stuck, sometimes the third. We lost about 40 seconds with these problems on stage 4, Rovanperä estimated, being seventh fastest of the stage.
- Luckily for us, there was a service right after. The original gearbox was changed back to the car, with its central lock valve and gear shift system fixed.
Leg 1, 4 stages/99,8 km, situation after SS 4/18:
1. Marcus Grönholm, Peugeot, 1 h 28'49,8" (67,4 km/h)
2. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, +00'06,8"
3. Petter Solberg, Subaru, +00'10,3"
4. Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, +00'13,9"
5. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, +00'40,4"
6. Colin McRae, Citroen, +00'55,7"
7. Markko Märtin, Ford, +01'22,3"
8. Richard Burns, Peugeot, +01'31,2"
Battle of the vikings set back by the heat on Saturday
Saturday was the hardest day of the rally, with eight special stages and 158,3 km of pouncing. Rovanperä had to give odds in the beginning of the second leg, as the heat caused the 'safe' mode of his car going on to protect the engine from overheating. Despite the reduced capacity, Harri was able to finish second and third on the first three stages of the morning. By the first service break on Saturday, Rovanperä was 13,4 seconds behind Solberg in front. By then it was already clear that the battle for victory would take place between nordic vikings, Solberg and Rovanperä having escaped over a minute away from the others.
- We tried to push as hard as the car allowed, in other words the alarm light blicking yellow but not red. We couldn't attack at full blast, so that gave Petter a slight advantage.
Rovanperä managed the rest of Saturday's stages convincingly, beating Solberg three times. The gap between them by midday, after nine stages, was only 4,8 seconds in Solberg's advantage.
- After the temperature problems, the day went fine and we almost succeeded in catching Petter, but the final stage again seemed to fit their car and tyres really well, so the gap widened a little bit.
Rovanperä was the only Peugeot driver left, and thus the pressure to secure his second place started to arise.
- We haven't given in yet when it comes to fighting for a win, there is still a long day ahead and anything can happen.
Leg 2, 8 stages/153,8 km, situation after SS 12/18
1. Petter Solberg, Subaru, 3 h 55'21,6" (65,8 km/h)
2. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, +00'25,3"
3. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, +02'44,6"
4. Colin McRae, Citroen, +03'29,0"
5. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, +04'32,9"
6. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford, +06'49,4"
7. Armin Schwarz, Hyundai, +10'03,3"
8. Alistair Ginley, Ford, +16'24,7"
Battle for victory changed into battle of survival
- fight over the second place a real thriller
On Sunday morning yet another six stages, equalling 82,9 km, loomed ahead. On the first three of them, Solberg managed to extend his lead by about 20 seconds, his difference to the second placed Rovanperä being 47,6 seconds. Rovanperä's gap to Citroen's Sebastien Loeb seemed safe enough, over three minutes. Rovanperä was already settling to secure his second place:
- We were trying to put in some speed, but we had quite clear instructions not to risk anything, so we couldn't really challenge Petter. We are driving to the finish now and let's see what happens. It would be nice to have rally racing through an entire event, but we have to think about the team now, Rovanperä considered at the service break of the day.
On the following stage a drive shaft was broken in Rovanperä's car and his advantage over Loeb diminished by more than a minute. A real thriller developed, as Rovanperä who was limping with a three-wheel-drive car had to give in to Loeb also on the next stage by 52,9 seconds. Before the 9,49-km final stage of the rally, Rovanperä was still hanging on to his second place, but Loeb was pushing merely one minute behind. Finally Rovanperä managed to remain second by a margin of just 2,8 seconds, so the second place under those conditions felt almost like a win.
- Oh God, how can it always get this hard! These were the most difficult three stages of my life, Rovanperä sighed after finally getting to the finish. - At some 3 to 5 km from the start of stage 16, the left drive shaft was broken and the car was horrible to handle with three driving wheels. On left corners the car immediately started to spin. We are lucky to keep our second place.
Leg 3, 6 stages/82,9 km, situation after SS 18/18
1. Petter Solberg, Subaru, 5 h 09'12,6" (66,2 km/h)
2. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, +04'14,0"
3. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, +04'16,8"
4. Colin McRae, Citroen, +04'45,3"
5. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, +05'42,2"
6. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford, +08'58,7"
7. Armin Schwarz, Hyundai, +13'29,0"
8. Alistair Ginley, Ford, +23'57,3"
Rovanperä climbed up in Drivers' Championship points and lies now eighth with 16 points. The next World Championship event in Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen's calendar is Nesterally Finland, August 8th to 10th. The crew from Central Finland has only one goal in mind in their home event: victory. This year they intend to keep the first place up until the finish.
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