Neste Rally Finland

http://www.nesteralli.com/images/nrf/nesterally.gif

This weekend is Rally Finland, the fastest rally on the WRC calender with average speeds in excess of 120kph, big jumps and high speeds make for an exciting spectacle to watch but the real question is who will be victorious.

Will somebody knock Burns off the top of the points standing or will he manage to maintain his slim lead by some careful driving to keep him in the points.
Will Marcus renew his winning ways or will Markko take his second podium of the season?
Will Petter manage to do something with the Impreza?

Official Site: Neste Rally Finland (http://www.nesteralli.com/en)

Last Years Top Ten:
1. Gronholm/ Rautianen
2. Burns/ Reid
3. Solberg/ Mills
4. Sainz/ Moya
5. Martin/ Park
6. Makinen/Lindstrom
7. Lindholm/ Hantunen
8. Paasonen/ Kaponen
9. Loix/ Smeets
10. Loeb/ Elena

Who'd be crazy enough to bet against Marcus? Well, I am! :D Wishful thiking, mostly, but it's time for a non-scandinavian to win that. Been too long :p

Carlos will repeat his first non-scandinavian win and win it a second time. Period. You can now close this thread, other discussions are useless. :biggrin: :biggrin:

It's about time Carlos pushes Burnsie from the top spot in the rankings.

Finns are hard to beat on their home rally but... go Markko!!! :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Focus better behave this time :devil:

-Pille-

Well I'm not betting against Marcus. I think it will largely depend on who has the most trouble free run. Should the new Focus hold together then Markko Martin is in with a big chance. Citroens are an unknown quantity but even if they're off the pace their reliability should pick them up some healthy points.

Other Pug drivers, Burns and Rovanpera are pretty strong in Finland too. Although Burns may be inclined to take it easy after trying too hard and bending things last year.

Marcus and Timo have won this rally since 2000. I think they can do it again this year.
I wonder what Rovanperä will do.

Id like to see the focus do well. Markko being the favorite, solberg would prolly be my other pick

I think Petter will do good on this one. Look for Burns and Martin to finish the podieum. Gronholm will crash on day 2 taking him out of the rally.

So, Markko was fastest on the first short stage with others following close behind. Great start! :biggrin:

It's not looking very good for Didier Auriol though, who is suffering from shoulder pain and might not even drive tomorrow. This is not what Skoda need right now... Let's hope for best.

-Pille-

I can barely bring myself to say it ....... but ....... I think Marcus will win :frown:

But come on Markko, you can do it :biggrin:

So stage 1 (yesterday) - Markko just 0.4 seconds faster than Marcus. Stage 2 (1st stage of the day) the set absolutely identical times! Wow!

SS3. Markko won it by 3.7 secs from Marcus and 7.4 secs from McRae, then Burns, Solberg, Sainz and Loeb. And Rovanpera - what does he have to do??? First real stage of the rally and his suspension breaks! And he was the fastest at the splits before the failure!

SS7

1. M GRÖNHOLM 47:11.8
2. M MÄRTIN +2.4
3. R BURNS +16.3
4. C MCRAE +38.1
5. P SOLBERG +38.9
6. C SAINZ +41.3
7. S LOEB +1:04.3
8. T MÄKINEN +1:04.5


As long as Carlos can finish ahead of Burnsie I'll be more then happy.

Leg 1 is all over bar the second run at the Super Special. Martin and Gronholm are still seperated by seconds at the top of the leader-board, with Martin now back in front. Will be a fairer fight between them tomorrow as they will be running right after each other on the road. After a slowish start Burns is now pretty much matching the pace of the top two.

1. 4 Martin-Park Ford Focus A8 1h06'57"300 123.9 km/h 1 1
2. 1 Gronholm-Rautia Peugeot 206 A8 1h07'00"000 + 00'02"70 2 2
3. 2 Burns-Reid Peugeot 206 A8 1h07'21"000 + 00'23"70 3 3
4. 17 McRae-Ringer Citroen Xsa A8 1h07'46"000 + 00'48"70 4 4
5. 7 Solberg-Mills Subaru Impr A8 1h07'47"300 + 00'50"00 5 5
6. 19 Sainz-Marti Citroen Xsa A8 1h07'51"600 + 00'54"30 6 6
7. 18 Loeb-Elena Citroen Xsa A8 1h08'18"400 + 01'21"10 7 7
8. 8 Makinen-Lindstr Subaru Impr A8 1h08'35"600 + 01'38"30 8 8
9. 23 Tuohino-Aho Ford Focus A8 1h08'43"800 + 01'46"50 9 9
10. 22 Pykalisto-Merts Peugeot 206 A8 1h08'46"500 + 01'49"20 10 10
11. 6 Hirvonen-Lehtin Ford Focus A8 1h09'01"200 + 02'03"90 11 11
12. 15 Gardemeister-Lu Skoda Fabia A8 1h09'08"900 + 02'11"60 12 12
13. 24 Lindholm-Hantun Peugeot 206 A8 1h09'16"400 + 02'19"10 13 13
14. 11 Loix-Smeets Hyundai Acc A8 1h09'37"600 + 02'40"30 14 14
15. 5 Duval-Prevot Ford Focus A8 1h09'50"900 + 02'53"60 15 15
16. 12 Valimaki-Honkan Hyundai Acc A8 1h10'32"900 + 03'35"60 16 16
17. 10 Schwarz-Hiemer Hyundai Acc A8 1h11'07"400 + 04'10"10 17 17
18. 26 Vatanen-Repo Peugeot 206 A8 1h11'25"500 + 04'28"20 18 18
19. 20 Latvala-Anttila Ford Focus A8 1h12'09"900 + 05'12"60 19 19
20. 27 Viita-Rousku Ford Focus A8 1h12'48"400 + 05'51"10 20 20
21. 21 Warmbold-Price Ford Focus A8 1h13'03"200 + 06'05"90 21 21
22. 3 Rovanpera-Pieti Peugeot 206 A8 1h32'03"000 + 25'05"70 22 22

This is turning out to be one interesting race! It's really great to see such a close battle between Markko and Marcus.

-Pille-

OK, now the very last stage of the day just finished, and Marcus won it by 0.1 seconds from Martin (the top 8 are within 1 second of the winner). The story of the day really, isn't it? Here are the standings before tomorrow.

1. 4 Markko MÄRTIN (EE) Ford Focus RS WRC 03 1:08:16.5 0.0

2. 1 Marcus GRÖNHOLM (FIN) Peugeot 206 WRC 1:08:19.1 +2.6

3. 2 Richard BURNS (GB) Peugeot 206 WRC 1:08:40.7 +24.2

4. 17 Colin MCRAE (GB) Citroën Xsara 1:09:05.8 +49.3

5. 7 Petter SOLBERG (N) Subaru Impreza WRC 2003 1:09:06.7 +50.2

6. 19 Carlos SAINZ (E) Citroën Xsara 1:09:13.2 +56.7

7. 18 Sébastien LOEB (F) Citroën Xsara 1:09:38.4 +1:21.9

8. 8 Tommi MÄKINEN (FIN) Subaru Impreza WRC 2003 1:09:56.0 +1:39.5

9. 23 Janne TUOHINO (FIN) Ford Focus RS WRC 02 1:10:05.2 +1:48.7

10. 22 Juuso PYKÄLISTÖ (FIN) Peugeot 206 WRC 1:10:07.8 +1:51.3

11. 6 Mikko HIRVONEN (FIN) Ford Focus RS WRC 02 1:10:22.0 +2:05.5

12. 15 Toni GARDEMEISTER (FIN) Skoda Fabia WRC 1:10:30.8 +2:14.3

13. 24 Sebastian LINDHOLM (FIN) Peugeot 206 WRC 1:10:37.7 +2:21.2

14. 11 Freddy LOIX (B) Hyundai Accent WRC 3 1:10:59.5 +2:43.0

15. 5 Francois DUVAL (B) Ford Focus RS WRC 03 1:11:10.8 +2:54.3

16. 12 Jussi VÄLIMÄKI (FIN) Hyundai Accent WRC 3 1:11:55.5 +3:39.0

17. 10 Armin SCHWARZ (D) Hyundai Accent WRC 3 1:12:30.0 +4:13.5

18. 26 Ari VATANEN (FIN) Peugeot 206 WRC 1:12:48.5 +4:32.0

19. 20 Jari-Matti LATVALA (FIN) Ford Focus RS WRC 02 1:13:32.0 +5:15.5

20. 3 Harri ROVANPERÄ (FIN) Peugeot 206 WRC 1:33:22.7 +25:06.2

OK, the first 2 stages of the day went to Marcus with markko in second at both. I'm loving this! No Gronholm leads Martin by 3.7 seconds with Burns 37 seconds and McRae already a minute behind. Cars are at service now.

if any of you are following ss14 split times, you'll notice Macrus is very slow towards the end, will be waiting to learn more.

GRÖNHOLM - Heading for the end of the stage with collapsed front right suspension. :frown:

Yes, Gronholm ran into problems and lost over a minute and is behind Sainz now. :( Also Markko is reported to have had problems with diffs (again!!! :mad: ) and lost 17 seconds to the winner McRae. Burns is now on a charge.

IIRC there's one more stage to go before service, so fingers crossed for Marcus. I was enjoying the first 13 stages of the rally immensely!

No service till after SS 15. Marcus could have just handed the championship to Burns. :eek:

He actually lost a wheel. Provera seems to believe Marcus's out. But if Burns wins the championship without winning a rally ... I don't know what to say.

Now ppl are saying he actually has a transmission problem.

Alegedly Gronholm suddenly lost his brakes. That may have led to him hitting something and damaging the suspension. With the normal Focus troubles cropping up for Markko, it's not looking good.

Gronholm has retired - S#*T! :bloated:

Originally posted by RallyRaider
Gronholm has retired - S#*T! :bloated:

Well that's going to take a lot of the excitement out of the next day and a half, I was enjoying the Markko/Marcus battle.

Beef Park just said in his interview that they are actually having electric problems - the dash went dead and also other electronics on the car are not working properly, so they're losing time at acceleration and braking.

From the horse's mouth:

Speaking at the stage finish after he had retired Marcus Gronholm said: "I don't understand. Normally you have to hit something for this to happen. I hit nothing. In the middle of the stage the steering went funny and in the next braking point everything flew off the right hand side. I think it's the hub."

Originally posted by RallyRaider
Gronholm has retired - S#*T! :bloated:

Yep, has been confirmed, Provera said Marcus called on the radio that something had broken in the front suspension, then later the wheel came off and he had to retire (apparently, because the police didn't allow a 3-wheel car to continue between stages).

Now McRae has alegedly picked up a one minute penalty for checking in early at time control. Will Grist be back for the next rally :lol:

I think Grist had more to do with this than is obvious at first sight! When the 14th stage was running, he said something on the radio to the effect "I hope that Marcus or Markko don't run into any nasty mechanical problems." Then wham, both of them run into them! He jinxed the leaders! :D

Burns wins SS15, but Markko only lost 6 seconds to him. Damage control. Hope Ford can sort the car out. And Sainz, slowly but surely is already 3rd! :eek:

SS16 - McRae rolls the car, and retires. He and Ringer are OK.

And Markko wins SS16 from Solberg and Burns. What they did at service was change as many electronic sensors and components (control units, etc) as they could, as they had no idea what the electronic problem was, nor if they had solved it. Aparently they have. Still quite amazing - a 40 km stage, and the top 4 are within 4.3 seconds. This is just how competitie this sport is. I'm loving it.

Aaaaaaaaand day 2 of the 2003 Neste Rally of Finland is over! And what an eventful day it has been! At first Marcus gronholm retakes the lead and wins 2 stages, then both he and Markko hit trouble, with Marcus retiring and Markko losing time, then M-sport manage to repair the focus somehow, and then on the last stage it's Burns's time to hit trouble - wheel bearing, apparently the same problem as Marcus had - and he lost a lot of time. He's still second overall, but Carlos is just 0.3 seconds behind, with Solberg another 0.2 (!!!!) seconds behind Sainz. Also Colin rolled his car today and retired. So a lot of action, and looking forward to some press conferences and the final day tomorrow!

The only thing to happen now, is Bruns to develop the same issue as Marcus had. So Sainz can take 8 points. That would make my weekend.

we'll see.

Markko wins, Slober just gets second in front of Burns. :D

Top effort from Solberg to sneak in front of Burns there on the last stage. Markko too for taking his second WRC win.

Burns has now extened his championship lead. Will probably need a DNF or two from him to lose the drivers championhip from here. Damn this new points system, under the previous one Marcus would be a few points ahead of Burns instead of 11 behind. If Burns wins the championship because of that I'll be very annoyed.

A big, big, BIG congratulations to Markko! Well done!!! :bigthumb:

Great result for Petter too, getting the second place on the very last stage. All in all a very nice rally!

Congrats again to Markko! :cheers:

-Pille-

nice results for markko and peter at the last minutes

Originally posted by RallyRaider
Top effort from Solberg to sneak in front of Burns there on the last stage. Markko too for taking his second WRC win.

Burns has now extened his championship lead. Will probably need a DNF or two from him to lose the drivers championhip from here. Damn this new points system, under the previous one Marcus would be a few points ahead of Burns instead of 11 behind. If Burns wins the championship because of that I'll be very annoyed.

:iagree:

But there are still 5 rallies to be run. If he keeps out of mechanical trouble he'll be probably in for the title yes; :mad:

I can't wait to watch this on Speedvision this week. The pics from the rally are awsome! And apparently Ford finally invented the flying car...

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/604090NasaMartin.jpg

:biggrin:

Obviously he landed well, I just can't wait to see it!

Did you cast rallyxs last night? The battle between marcus and markko was awesome:bigthumb:

Originally posted by RallyRaider
Top effort from Solberg to sneak in front of Burns there on the last stage. Markko too for taking his second WRC win.

Burns has now extened his championship lead. Will probably need a DNF or two from him to lose the drivers championhip from here. Damn this new points system, under the previous one Marcus would be a few points ahead of Burns instead of 11 behind. If Burns wins the championship because of that I'll be very annoyed.

In an interview for Channel 4's rally program Burnsie more or less admitted that he is driving to finish rather than to win, hence his relative lack of pace on the final stage of day 3, losing his 2nd place to Petter but still netting 6 valuable points.

If the old system were in use he would have had to beat Petter to maximise his points, but now he can relax safe in the knowledge that 3rd place is still good for his championship hopes.

On the one hand I'm pleased that Burns is leading the championship, because he's a fellow Brit and it's good to see we can still do well in some sports. On the other hand, if he wins it by just finishing 2nd or 3rd all the time it will be a shame, as everyone will forever doubt his title on the grounds that he never actually beat the competition outright.

Asmenoth - if you think the static pics are good, wait till you see the TV footage. The Rally of Finland makes for an awesome TV spectacle!