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Fight over manufacturers’ championship tightens
Rovanperä slowed down by brake trouble. Three valuable makes’ points from Australia.
In Rally Australia, Harri Rovanperä was able to score for Peugeot three
championship points, which, together with the six points brought by
Richard Burns, keep Peugeot in the lead of the manufacturers’
championship. The lead is a shared one, though, as Citroen now has the
same amount of points as Peugeot, with only four WRC-events left this
season.
Victim of bad luck already in the early stages:
Brake problems and too hard tyres slowed down Rovanperä’s pace
Rovanperä was left out of the top battle in Rally Australia, due to a brake
failure in the early Friday morning.
- We lost the brakes already on the first forest stage, a vexed Rovanperä
said. – I had to pump the brakes to make them grip even a little. Of
course, my driving was affected because I wasn’t able to trust the brakes
at all. The only reasonable stage times were thus clocked in the middle
section, where Rovanperä posted the fifth and sixth fastest times. For the
last stages of the leg, Rovanperä chose tyres of too hard a compound,
which left him almost two minutes behind the fastest drivers.
Leg 1, 10 special stages, 145,2 SS-km
Positions after SS 10/24
Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, 1 h 23´52,4” (103,9 km/h)
2. Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 00´03,9“
3. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 00´39,1”
4. Tommi Mäkinen, Subaru + 01´00,2”
5. Markko Märtin, Ford, +01'05,0”
6. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 01´12,6”
7. Colin McRae, Citroen, + 01´25,0”
8. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 01´52,9”
9. Freddy Loix, Hyundai, + 02´41,6”
10. Didier Auriol, Skoda, + 02´52,7”
Rovanperä at the pace of the others on Saturday
The second day in Rally Australia began well for Harri Rovanperä, as he
clocked the fourth quickest time on the opening stage (SS 11, Beraking
East, 8,88 km). On the following three stages, he finished fifth, seventh
and eighth respectively. On the stage following the mid-day service break
(SS 15, Beraking West, 9,42 km), Rovanperä was the eighth fastest. After
that, followed the reruns of stages 12-14 (SS 16, Helena East 2, 20,49
km, SS 17, Helena West 2, 12,60 km and SS 18, Helena South 2, 17,31
km). On those stages, Rovanperä succeeded in finishing twice fourth and
once he was fifth.
- On Sunday morning we were suffering from the loose gravel and on
stage 14, we realized the engine was losing its capacity at higher
revolutions, but we managed in getting that fixed. On the reruns of the
same stages the roads were already cleared, which made the
circumstances equal for everybody. We did quite well on those stages,
Rovanperä told content.
Over the 124 stage kilometers of Saturday, Rovanperä was one minute
slower than Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb and Subaru’s Petter Solberg who
were scorching in front, but was keeping up with the others all day long.
All the drivers in 5th to 8th overall were within 34,7 seconds before the
final day of the rally.
Still on Saturday evening, Harri Rovanperä was confident that he would be
able to improve his position during Sunday. In 2002, he had succeeded in
posting three stage wins and one second fastest time on the stages of
Bannister.
- We are trying to catch at least the two Citroens driving about 30 seconds
ahead of us, Rovanperä planned.
Leg 2, 10 special stages, 124 SS-km
Positions after SS 20/24
Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, 2 h 32´04,6” (106,2 km/h)
Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 00`05,0
Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 01´25,8
Markko Märtin, Ford, +01'53,1”
Colin McRae, Citroen, + 02´19,5”
Tommi Mäkinen, Subaru + 02´20,9”
Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 02´26,8”
Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 02´54,2”
Freddy Loix, Hyundai, + 05´17,8”
Francois Duval, Ford, + 05´ 55,1”
Rovanperä salvaging the constructors’ points on Sunday
Harri Rovanperä was the seventh driver on the road on the last day of
Rally Australia. The sixth best score of constructors’ points was at stake,
so the most important goal for Harri was to make sure he would get it. On
the morning stages (SS 21, Bannister North, 24,81 km and SS 22,
Bannister South, 34,16 km), Rovanperä was the sixth fastest.
- We were trying to challenge the speed of the Citroens this morning, but
Sainz and McRae were pushing really hard. We did manage in clocking
about the same times as them, but didn’t reach them at all. During the
break, we fitted hard compound tyres, but just as we were at the start of
the last but second stage, about one hour later, it started raining, so the
tyres were totally wrong for those conditions, Rovanperä said annoyed.
On the last two stages (SS 23, Bannister West, 24,69 km and SS 24,
Bannister Central, 33,45 km), Rovanperä settled for securing a safe
finish, because the rain was getting heavier and heavier, making the
roads very hard to master.
- Well, with Marcus retired, we had no other choice but to bring the car
over the finish line and in manufacturers’ points. The rally had really been
ruined for us already on Friday with the brake trouble and my bad choice
of tyres, which cost us nearly two minutes. Today we were just peacefully
swinging around for the last 60 kilometers up until the finish and lost
another 40 seconds, Rovanperä reported, disappointed with the outcome.
Leg 3, 4 special stages, 117,11 SS-km
The entire rally, 24 special stages, 386,31 SS-km
Final results after SS 24/24
1. Petter Solberg, Subaru, 3 h 32´ 07,1” (109,3 km/h)
2. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, + 00´26,6”
3. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 01´53,0
4. Colin McRae, Citroen, + 02´30,7”
5. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 02´37,2”
6. Tommi Mäkinen, Subaru + 03´01,5”
7. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 04´03,9
8. Freddy Loix, Hyundai, + 07´00,7”
9. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford, + 7´10,6”
10. Francois Duval, Ford, + 07´ 46,2”
11. Toni Gardemeister, Skoda, +10´10,2”
12. Didier Auriol, Skoda, + 11´08,1”
13. Armin Schwarz, Hyundai, + 14´14,4”
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