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Historically the first five places to non-Finns
Rovanperä’s home event ruined right in the beginning
History was made in the Finnish round of World Championship rallying.
All the podium places were occupied by foreign competitors. For Harri
Rovanperä of Peugeot, one of the favourites before the event, the rally got
ruined already on the second special stage.
According to the team’s own time keeping, Harri had already moved onto
the lead of the rally.
Then everything went wrong when the bolt of the right suspension arm
was broken in a very innocent looking right corner. Harri was yet able to
continue in the competition but eventually came to a stop on Saturday
morning in Ouninpohja stage, where he lost the steering after going over
a crest and the car ended up into a bank.
Suspension problems were to trouble also Marcus Grönholm of Peugeot,
the leader at that point, and he was forced to retire two stages later when
Ouninpohja was run for the second time. After Grönholm had retired, also
Richard Burns was affected in his fight for top positions by a wheel
bearing trouble.
With the Finnish aces out of the competition because of technical trouble,
it was a foreign drivers’ feast in Neste Rally Finland when the first five
places went abroad. Despite a failure in Rally Finland, Peugeot was able
to remain in the lead in both championships with Richard Burns finishing
third and bringing in the valuable six points both for himself and his team.
All the manufacturers’ points were this time divided among the twelve
best, so even if Rovanperä had reached the finish, he couldn’t have
helped Peugeot in scoring points with all the extra minutes he clocked
during Saturday.
Season 2003, 9/14 world championship rally
Neste Rally Finland
Final results after SS 23/23:
1. Markko Märtin, Ford 3 h 21’51,7’’ (121,6 km/h)
2. Petter Solberg, Subaru +00’58,9’’
3. Richard Burns, Peugeot +01’00,1’’
4. Carlos Sainz, Citroen +01’59,0’’
5. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen +02’48,7’’
6. Tommi Mäkinen, Subaru +03’25,2’’
7. Janne Tuohino, Ford +04’22,9’’
8. Sebastian Lindholm, Peugeot +04’39,5’’
The next world championship event will be the Rally Australia (September
3-7), where Peugeot is defending a double victory from last year. The two
fastest there in 2002 were Marcus Grönholm and Harri Rovanperä.
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