Neste Rally Finland

[freakray]

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

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

[ales]

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

[Guido]

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.

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

[-Pille-]

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

Focus better behave this time

-Pille-

[RallyRaider]

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.

[Marco_Wrc]

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

[z33guy]

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

[XspudX]

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.

[-Pille-]

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

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-

[Focus2000]

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

But come on Markko, you can do it

[ales]

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!

[ales]

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!

[Guido]

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.

[RallyRaider]

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

[-Pille-]

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

-Pille-